As an employee you are always entitled to legal holidays. How many vacation days you are entitled to depends on the number of hours you work per week. This is expressed in hours and is four times your number of contract hours on an annual basis. If you work 40 hours a week, you are therefore entitled to 160 holiday hours. (And with that 20 vacation days.) In addition, you may be entitled to vacation days that exceed the statutory value. We will explain more about this in the third question in the segment 'holidays'.
You can check how many vacation days you are actually entitled to in your employment contract, personnel guide or collective labor agreement. Your employer will continue to pay your wages during vacation days. You will of course accrue vacation days pro rata. If you join your employer during the calendar year, you accrue vacation days over the remaining months of the year.
What are legal holidays?
Statutory vacation days are the minimum number of vacation days to which you are legally entitled. As an employee you are always entitled to legal holidays. How many vacation days you are entitled to depends on the number of hours you work per week. This is expressed in hours and is four times your number of contract hours on an annual basis. If you work 40 hours a week, you are therefore entitled to 160 holiday hours. (And with that 20 vacation days.)
What are non-statutory holidays?
You accrue standard vacation days with your employer. These are the legal holidays. But there are also vacation days that are extra statutory. If you receive a number of vacation days in addition to your statutory vacation days, these extra days are the vacation days that exceed the statutory value.
When do my holidays expire?
You always want to prevent the expiry of your vacation days. That is why it is good to know when your holidays expire. The legal vacation days expire six months after the calendar year in which they were accrued. The expiry period of the extra-statutory holidays is much longer. You can take extra days of vacation up to five years after the calendar year in which they are accrued. When you apply for a holiday with your employer, it is therefore advisable to indicate that you first want to take your statutory holidays.
Your employer can encourage you to take your vacation days as much as possible. This is to prevent that you do not get enough rest and that you build up a reservoir of vacation days.