Holidays mean great freedom for school children. For many working parents, on the other hand, the school-free period means they have to get organized and balance childcare and work. Are they entitled to leave during holiday periods?
This is regulated by the Federal Holidays Act. “It states that an employer must take the employee’s holiday wishes into account, unless there are urgent operational concerns to the contrary,” explains Johannes Schipp, specialist lawyer for labor law in Gütersloh.
However, an employer usually has the task of reconciling the various wishes of his employees in such a way that the company can continue to run. Paragraph 7 of the Federal Holidays Act therefore stipulates that when individual employees are granted holiday leave, holiday requests from other employees who deserve priority from a social point of view can also conflict, explains the specialist lawyer, who is chairman of the labor law working group in the German Lawyers’ Association.
“That applies, for example, to employees with school-age children who want to take vacation during the holidays.” Or to employees whose spouses can only travel at certain times.
When planning holidays, an employer then has to decide on a case-by-case basis who gets holiday and when – and weigh up the wishes of their employees against each other, taking into account the legal requirements.
If everyone wants to take vacation at the same time, he has to find a solution. “An employer may then have to say: This year you have vacation time, next year someone else will,” says Schipp.
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Source: WELT/ Sebastian Struwe
This article was first published in May 2019.
