Can the boss reclaim the holiday after the termination?

The entire annual vacation was already wasted in the spring, suddenly a new job offer comes along that you can’t refuse. What happens now with the vacation days already taken? Does the former boss have the right to claim back the holiday pay?

Retirement in the first half of the year? No refund possible

Employees need not fear this. If the general regulations on taking vacation are met, the boss cannot simply claim back the vacation pay. Among other things, the regulations state that you must have been employed by the company for at least six months in order to be entitled to holiday entitlement. If, at the time of the vacation application, the employment relationship was longer than June 30, then the employee need not fear any claims for reimbursement.

Because as soon as you have been employed in the company for more than six months and work in the company as planned for the first half of the year, you have the full right to four weeks of vacation, which is regulated by law. However, special regulations in the employment or collective agreement complicate the situation.

Retirement in the second half of the year? Days above legal requirement

Because the rules in the contract can replace the legal rules, explained Jürgen Markowski, specialist lawyer for labor law, to the German Press Agency. Here, for example, more than the 20 legally regulated vacation days can be permitted, but a clause can be stipulated that there is an entitlement to one twelfth of the vacation days per calendar month and not to the entire vacation days from the beginning.

If you have more than the statutory vacation days and take them at the beginning of the year, you don’t need to worry either, writes the “haufe.de” website, which deals with personnel issues. If you leave in the first half of the year, you cannot claim back the vacation days, even if they exceed the statutory entitlement. However, if the termination is not made until the second half of the year, the vacation days that exceed the statutory entitlement could be reclaimed by the boss.

No double leave when changing jobs during the year

However, anyone who changes their job during the year should definitely bear one thing in mind: If they have already used up their entire holiday entitlement in their old job, they no longer have any new holiday entitlements after the change. Because the new employer does not have to grant him vacation days if the employee has already taken them in the old job. To do this, the old employer must issue the employee with a vacation certificate that shows how many vacation days have already been taken.

Editorial office finanzen.net