There is a $1,200 fine for calling employees while on vacation

According to a representative Bitcom survey from 2022, seven out of ten employees (71 percent) in Germany can also be reached professionally during summer vacation. They give the expectations of the professional environment as the main reason for this. Two out of three employees (63 percent) want to be available professionally because they assume that their colleagues expect this, and at least half (50 percent) expect it from their superiors, according to the respondents.

Right to Unreachability

The legal situation is clear: According to the experts of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), an employer may contact his employees during their vacation, but he should not expect them to react to it. Because according to § 1 BUrlG, every employee is entitled to paid vacation time in each calendar year, during this time he does not have to perform the agreed work. This means that as an employee you have the right not to be available on vacation. After all, you can’t relax if you answer phone calls or check emails while you’re on vacation.

If the boss calls, emails or otherwise works during the vacation, this time is considered working time. It must therefore be paid regularly and the holiday must be made up for accordingly, can be read on the DGB website.

So that the employees can enjoy their vacation undisturbed, Dr. Bernhard Rohleder, General Manager of the industry association of the German information and telecommunications industry (Bitkom), that employers have a duty: “Employers have a responsibility to establish functioning substitute solutions so that employees can relax during the holidays. Only in extreme emergencies should the holiday will be disturbed.” That requires clear rules and an equally clear address, for example with regard to the basic expectations of the company and its employees.

High penalties for disturbances on vacation

One company that has understood this and responded accordingly is Dream Sports. The Indian company has drawn clear boundaries between work and free time to ensure employees can completely switch off during their vacation. As the founders explained in a CNBC interview, employees should leave the company completely during their free time so that they can then return relaxed and full of energy. For this purpose, at least one week of compulsory vacation was set for all employees. “Once a year you get thrown out of the system for a week,” said Harsh Jain, one of the two founders. “You don’t have Slack, you don’t have emails and you don’t have calls. Because having uninterrupted time in that one week helps a lot and it helps the company to see if we’re dependent on someone.”

This rule is strictly enforced and anyone who contacts another employee while they are on vacation faces a fine of around $1,200. This measure works: “No one wants to be that idiot who called someone who is on unplug vacation right now,” co-founder Bhavit Sheth told CNBC.

Dream Sports has become the market leader in fantasy sports in India. Users can put together virtual teams of real players in various sports and then collect points and cash prizes based on the real performance of the players. According to CNBC, Dream Sports is now worth around eight billion dollars and is therefore a unicorn.

Editorial office finanzen.net

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