Vacation Entitlement for Unpaid Absences

Unpaid absences — days without continued payment of wages — lead to a proportional reduction in annual vacation entitlement, as no entitlement is accrued on those days.

The adjustment is based on the number of absence days and the daily vacation accrual rate.

To calculate vacation entitlement with unpaid absences, the entitlement is accrued proportionally per working day. In the following example, vacation entitlement for 2024 is calculated with 10 unpaid absence days.

Starting Values and Vacation Entitlement

• Contract: 100% workload
• Working week: Monday to Friday (5 working days)
• Working time: 8.4 hours per day
• Vacation entitlement: 5 working weeks (25 working days)
• Vacation entitlement in hours: 25 working days × 8.4 hours/day = 210 hours.

Vacation entitlement is accrued pro rata per working day over the course of the year — meaning employees earn a small portion of their annual entitlement for each day worked.

Vacation Accrual per Working Day

Since vacation entitlement accrues daily, the daily accrual rate for 261 working days in 2024 is:

• In hours: 210 hours (annual entitlement) / 261 working days ≈ 0.805 hours per working day.
• In days: 25 days (annual entitlement) / 261 working days ≈ 0.096 days per working day.

Reduction of Vacation Entitlement for Unpaid Absences

Unpaid absences reduce vacation entitlement because no entitlement is accrued on those days. The reduction is calculated based on the number of absence days.

Example: For an unpaid absence of 10 working days (Mon – Fri), the vacation entitlement is reduced as follows:

• In hours: 10 days × 0.805 hours per day = 8.05 hours.
• In days: 10 days × 0.096 days per day = 0.96 days.

Result

With 10 days of unpaid absence, vacation entitlement would be reduced by 8.05 hours (0.96 days), resulting in a remaining entitlement of 24.04 days (201.95 hours).