Your right to vacation is governed by:
- If you are covered by a collective agreement
- Your employment contract
- The Holiday Act
Holiday leave
You are legally entitled to 25 days of annual leave per year if you are hired before 31 August. If you are hired after August 31, you are only entitled to 5 days of vacation. If your employment is for three months or less, you can agree to receive only financial compensation instead of leave, known as holiday pay.
More vacation days and other conditions may apply in the collective agreement in the workplace.
By law, vacation leave must normally be scheduled so that the employee has a continuous period of leave of at least 4 weeks during June-August.
Accrual year
According to the Annual Holidays Act, in order to be entitled to paid holiday, an employee must first earn holiday during an earning year in order to be able to take paid holiday the following year, known as a holiday year. According to the Annual Holidays Act, this runs from April 1 to March 31.
In some collective agreements, the accrual year is the same as the calendar year, i.e. from January 1 to December 31. Some collective agreements also have a coinciding accrual year and holiday year, which means that you are entitled to paid holiday in your first year of employment.
If you have not yet earned paid vacation, you are entitled to take the vacation days as unpaid.
Vacation year
The vacation year is the year in which you take your vacation leave. According to the Annual Holidays Act, the holiday year starts on 1 April and lasts until 31 March of the following year. Some collective agreements or employment contracts count the calendar year as the vacation year.
Advance holiday
Vacation in advance means that you receive paid vacation without having earned it. The debt is written off after five years. If you terminate your employment within five years, the debt is deducted from your accrued vacation pay. If your employment is terminated due to lack of work or illness, the debt is written off. The conditions for advance holiday may be agreed in the Annual Holidays Act, collective agreements or employment contracts.