16.12.2020

WE ARE LOSING LEAVE FROM TWO YEARS AGO

The employer cannot force us to take unpaid leave

All days of leave can be used until the end of their two-year statute of limitations, regardless of whether they are postponed or not for the next calendar year, said the General Labor Inspectorate. For example, until the end of 2020, the last days of 2018 can be used. The statute of limitations stops for the period in which the employee uses another type of leave - for pregnancy and childbirth, for childcare, etc.

Part of the leave may be postponed to the next calendar year at the request of the employee and obtaining the consent of the employer.

The employer, for its part, may also postpone part of the leave, but only for important production reasons. In any case, however, the employer is obliged to ensure the use of at least half of the days of leave in the year for which they are due, and the rest - no later than the middle of the next.

After this period, employees may use the transferred or unused days of leave from the previous year with 14 days notice and without the consent of the employer. However, they must have evidence that they have previously requested leave and have been denied.

In the general case, workers are obliged to use the paid annual leave until the end of the calendar year for which it is taken. Employers are obliged to create an order for the use of the leave by informing the workers at the beginning of the year about the due days and to invite them to declare the use of the rest from the previous year.

The lack of informing the employees about the days due to them is one of the most common violations, which the control bodies of the Inspectorate establish in connection with the vacations.

The Labor Inspectorate also clarifies that even in an emergency situation or in an emergency epidemic situation, the employer cannot provide unpaid leave to its employees without their request.

He has the right to grant unilaterally only their paid leave, if the activity of the enterprise, part of it or individual employees is stopped by an order of a state body or by its order. If the activity is not stopped, he has the right to provide the workers with only half of the paid leave without their request.

During a state of emergency or epidemic emergency, the employer has no right to refuse paid or unpaid leave to pregnant women, mothers or adoptive parents of children under 12, as well as single fathers, persons with 50 and over 50 percent permanently reduced working capacity or under protection due to certain diseases included in a special regulation.