An employee i.e. a person who performs work on the basis of an employment contract, appointment, election, nomination or a cooperative employment contract shall have a right to annual leave.
Entitlement to annual leave
An employee, in each year of work, is entitled to have an annual, uninterrupted, paid leave. It is the employer’s duty to grant annual leave to an employee in the year in which the employee became entitled to it. Unused annual leave should be granted by 30 September of the subsequent calendar year.
Persons performing work on other grounds than the employment relationship acquire the right to annual leave when specific regulations provide so, e.g. outworkers or when such an entitlement results from e.g. the contents of a mandate contract or an agency contract. The leave has to be granted in kind. Payment of financial equivalent is allowed only in situations provided for in the law (termination or expiration of an employment contract).
Amount of annual leave
The duration of annual leave of an employee employed on a full-time basis amounts to:
- 20 days – if the worker has been employed less than 10 years,
- 26 if the worker has been employed at least 10 years.
The duration of annual leave of part-time employees is determined proportionately to their working time, on the basis of the length of the leave of a full-time employee.
An employee who used the annual leave for a given calendar year and subsequently acquired the right to an extended leave in the same calendar year shall be entitled to a supplementary leave.
The amount of annual leave depends on the length of the employee’s service and education. The length of service, which determines the length of annual leave includes:
- periods of employment,
- periods of education,
- other periods, in accordance with legal provisions.
The length of service which determines the right to annual leave and its amount, includes previous employment periods, regardless of breaks in employment and the manner of termination of the employment relationship. If an employee remains in two or more employment relationships at the same time, the period of previous, not completed employment in the part prior to conclusion of the second or another employment relationship shall be included.
The length of service which determines the amount of leave shall not include:
- periods of work under a contract of mandate or any other civil-law agreement,
- periods of conducting business activity,
- unpaid leave – under Art. 174 § 2 of the Labour Code.
Education and the length of leave
The period of service which determines the amount of leave includes the completion of:
- basic or equivalent vocational school – the period of education provided for in the curriculum, but in no case longer than 3 years,
- secondary vocational school – the period of education provided for in the curriculum, but in no case longer than 5 years,
- secondary vocational school for the graduates of basic (or equivalent) vocational schools – 5 years,
- general secondary school – 4 years,
- post-secondary school – 6 years,
- tertiary education institutions – 8 years.
If an employee received education during employment, the length of service that determines the length of leave shall include:
- the period of employment during which the employee received education, or,
- the period of that education, whichever is more favourable for the employee.
Periods included in the period of service which determine the amount of leave
Periods affecting the length of annual leave include, among others:
- periods of receiving the unemployment benefit,
- proven periods of employment abroad at a foreign employer,
- period of active military service,
- period of professional military service,
- the period for which a compensation is due for shortening of the notice period of a contract concluded for an indefinite or a fixed-term employment contract in connection with a bankruptcy or liquidation of an employer or redundancy for reasons relating to the employer, as provided for in separate provisions (Art. 361 of the Labour Code),
- period of childcare leave (Art. 1865 of the Labour Code),
- period of running an individual farm or working in such a farm run by a spouse.
Rules for granting annual leave
The annual leave shall be granted for days which are the employee’s work days, as per the working time schedule applicable to the employee, in the number of hours corresponding to the employee’s daily working time on a given day.
First annual leave
In the calendar year in which the employee takes up first employment, after each month of work, he/she acquires the right to annual leave in the amount of 1/12 of the leave to which he/she would be entitled to after a year of work. An employee acquires the right to subsequent leaves in each subsequent calendar year.
REMEMBER! The rules for granting first annual leave apply:
- only in the calendar year in which the employee took up employment for the first time,
- regardless of the number of employers.
The duty to round up the annual leave to a full day does not result from the labour law provisions. However, the employer may, to the benefit of the employee, round up the length of leave to full hours or full days, bearing in mind that the length of annual leave due to the employee in a calendar year shall not exceed the length to which the employee is entitled.
E.g., if the employment relationship has been concluded on 24 May 2022, the working month shall end on 23 June 2022.
Granting an hourly leave to the employee corresponding to the part of his/her daily working time is only allowed if the remaining part of the leave is lower than the full daily working time of the employee on the day for which the leave is to be granted.
Using the annual leave
An employee shall have the right to an uninterrupted leave. On the employee’s request, the leave may be divided into parts, however, at least one part of the annual leave should last at least 14 subsequent calendar days.
In accordance with the provisions, there are two ways to grant annual leave:
- as per the leave schedule,
- in an arrangement between the employer and the employee.
The leave schedule shall be determined by the employer, taking account of the employees’ requests and the necessity of securing continuity of operations. The leave schedule does not include the so-called leave on demand. An employer who does not determine the leave schedule shall grant the leave upon arrangement with an employee.
Proportional leave
In the calendar year of termination of the employment relationship with an employee entitled to subsequent leave, the employee is entitled to:
- a leave with the current employer – in the amount proportionate to the period of work with that employer in the year of termination of the employment relationship, unless the employee used the leave in the extent due to him or larger,
- a leave with the next employer – in the amount: – proportionate to the period remaining until the end of the calendar year – in case the employment relationship is to last longer than the end of the calendar year or, in case the employment relationship is to last shorter than the end of the calendar year, proportionate to the employment period in the given calendar year.
However, if prior to termination of the employment relationship in the calendar year the employee used the leave in the amount exceeding the extent of leave resulting from the period of employment, the amount of leave due to him/her with another employer shall be correspondingly lower.
The proportional leave is also due to an employee returning to work for the current employer in the calendar year after at least one month-long period of:
- unpaid leave,
- child-care leave,
- performance of basic military service or its substitute forms, preparatory service, periodic military service, territorial military service performed on a rotational basis, military training or drills,
- temporary detention,
- imprisonment,
- unjustified work absence.
Dates of leave
The agreed dates of leave are binding for both parties to the employment relationship. It may be changed in the following two situations:
- on the employee’s request, justified with important reasons; or;
- due to exceptional employer’s needs, if the employee’s absence would cause serious interruptions of the workflow.
Obligatory change of the dates of leave
If the employee may not start the leave in the agreed period due to reasons justifying his/her absence at work, particularly due to:
- temporary inability to work due to a disease,
- isolation due to an infectious disease,
- being summoned to military drills or training or for rotational territorial military service for a period of up to 3 months,
- maternity leave, parental leave, leave on the terms of maternity leave or paternity leave,
the employer shall have a duty to postpone the leave to a later date.
If the employee has started the leave, but due to specific circumstances such as:
- temporary inability to work due to a disease,
- isolation due to an infectious disease,
- being summoned to military drills or training or for rotational territorial military service for a period of up to 3 months,
- maternity leave, parental leave, leave on the terms of maternity leave or paternity leave,
cannot use the whole leave, the employer shall have a duty to grant the unused part of the leave at a later date which means that the employee has to submit the leave request once again.
Employer’s rights – recalling from leave
An employer may recall an employee from leave only when the employee’s presence in the employer's establishment is required by circumstances that could not have been foreseen when the leave started.
REMEMBER!
- The decision on recalling an employee from leave shall be taken by the employer.
- The employer shall cover expenses incurred by the employee directly related to his/her recalling from leave.
- These expenses should be documented by the employee.
Employer’s rights – leave during the notice period
During the notice period of an employment contract, an employee shall have the duty to use the remaining leave due to him/her, if the leave is granted by the employer during that period. This applies to both the outstanding and current leave but the amount of current leave must not exceed the length of leave resulting from the provisions on proportional leave.
On-demand leave
An employer shall have a duty to grant the leave of no more than 4 days per calendar year at the request of the employee and at the time specified by the employee.
The request for leave shall be submitted by the employee on the first day of that leave at the latest.
On-demand leave may be used at once or in parts.
Every employee shall have the right to 4 days of on-demand leave, regardless of their working time schedule. The total length of on-demand leave used by the employee may not exceed 4 days in a calendar year, regardless of the number of employers with whom the employee remains bound with subsequent employment relationships in the given year.
Money equivalent for unused leave
If the leave is not used by the entitled employee entirely or in part due to the termination or expiration of the employment relationship, the employee shall be entitled to a money equivalent. The employer shall pay the equivalent regardless of the mode and reason of termination of the employment relationship. Thus, the equivalent shall also be due to an employee with whom the contract was terminated on the grounds of Art. 52 § 1 of the Labour Code. The entitlement to the equivalent arises on the day of termination or expiration of the employment relationship.
An employer has no duty to pay a money equivalent if the parties agree that the employee uses the leave based on a subsequent employment contract with the same employer concluded immediately after termination or expiration of the previous employment contract with that employer. The money equivalent for unused leave shall be calculated in accordance with the rules applicable to calculation of leave remuneration with the changes provided for in § 15-19 of the Regulation on Detailed Rules for Granting Annual Leave, Calculating and Payment of Remuneration for the Period of Leave and Money Equivalent for Leave. The equivalent is subject to protection to the same extent as remuneration for work.
Remuneration for the period of leave
For the time of annual leave, an employee is entitled to remuneration as if he/she would receive for the performance of work.
The remuneration components specified in a monthly fixed rate shall be taken into account in the remuneration for leave due to an employee in the month in which the leave is used. If the employee receives variable components of remuneration, they may be calculated on the basis of an average remuneration in the period of 3 months preceding the month of commencement of the leave.
However, if the remuneration varies significantly, the a/m period may be extended to up to 12 months. In the event of changes in variable components of remuneration or changes in the amounts of these components in the period used for calculating the basis of leave remuneration introduced before commencement of the employee’s annual leave or in the month of using this leave, the basis shall be established once again, taking account of these changes.
Detailed rules for calculating and payment of remuneration for the period of annual leave are provided for in the ‘Leave Regulation’ (see legal grounds).
Outstanding leave
An employer should grant annual leave to an employee in the year in which the employee acquired the right to it. The leave unused in this period should be granted by the employer until 30 September of the following calendar year at the latest. The employer’s failure to grant the outstanding leave in the a/m period constitutes an offence against the employee’s rights.
Failing to grant the leave to an employee in that period does not result in the employee’s loss of the right to the leave. The employee’s claim for an outstanding annual leave expires 3 years after the date on which the claim became due.
Juvenile employee’ leave
A juvenile employee acquires the right to annual leave within 6 months from taking up first employment, in the amount of 12 working days. After a year, a juvenile employee acquires the right to annual leave of 26 working days. However, in the calendar year in which the juvenile employee turns 18 years of age, he/she is entitled to annual leave in the amount of 20 working days, if he/she acquired the right to the leave prior to turning 18 years of age.
A juvenile employee attending school classes should be granted a leave for the period of school holidays.
An employer shall have a duty to grant an unpaid leave to a juvenile employee which, together with annual leave, does not exceed 2 months, in the period of school holidays. The period of unpaid leave shall be included in the period of service which determines the employee rights.
Additional leave due to disabled employees
A disabled employee classified as:
- severely disabled; or
- moderately disabled;
shall be entitled to additional annual leave of 10 working days in a calendar year.
A disabled employee acquires the right to the first additional annual leave within a year of the date of being classified in one of the a/m groups of disability.
Acquisition of the entitlement to additional annual leave by a disabled person increases the regular amount of annual leave due to an employee under the Labour Code i.e. from 20 to 30 or from 26 to 36 days.