ANNUAL HOLIDAYS
| DENMARK |
| FERIE ANNUAL HOLIDAYS |
In Denmark the Annual Holidays Act defines for the vast majority of employees the holidays that may be taken, although in some cases this may be done, subject to the approval of the Labour Inspection Directorate (see work environment ), by collective agreements based on the legislation. In addition, again subject to approval by the Directorate, §3 of the Annual Holidays Act also permits the collective negotiation of special rules in the form of holiday agreements. Such agreements are very common, particularly as regards divergent provisions on holiday pay (see below).
1) Holiday entitlement. Under §6 of the Act, employees are entitled to 2 1/2 days of holiday for each month of employment completed in a calendar year (qualifying year). The period of employment concerned includes a proportionate number of non-working days, e.g. Saturdays. The holiday entitlement as provided for under §6 of the Act attracts holiday pay, and employees may not waive or transfer their right to this paid annual holiday. However, in accordance with §6a all employees who have not accrued the necessary entitlement also have the right to take the full amount of holiday, but without pay. It is stated in §8 that annual holidays must be taken in the year following the qualifying year, during the period which is referred to as the holiday year and runs from 2 May to the following 1 May.
2) Timing of holidays. The exact timing of holidays within the holiday year is decided by the employer in the light of the enterprise's needs, but §10 of the Act stipulates that employees must be given due notice of their holiday dates. Under §9 the annual holiday is divided into: (a) a main holiday entitlement (of up to 18 days), which must be granted in a single uninterrupted block falling between 2 May and 30 September (referred to as the holiday season), with three months' notice of the dates; and (b) a residual holiday entitlement, which may be granted outside the holiday season and split according to more flexible criteria. By agreement with the employee, the main holiday entitlement may also be divided into two segments and taken outside the holiday season. The Act makes no provision for the annual holiday entitlement to be carried over from one year to the next.
3) Holiday pay. Under §12 of the Act, during their annual holidays employees are entitled to be paid a holiday allowance amounting to 12 1/2 per cent. of the total pay they earned during the qualifying year. This sum must be paid in by the employer on a regular basis into a Holiday Account which is administered by a Holiday Fund with administrative assistance from the Supplementary Earnings-Related Pension Scheme . However, exceptions may apply where different provisions have been laid down by collective agreement (see above). Many such holiday agreements provide that the employer may, instead, fulfil this obligation by issuing employees with a stamped holiday card as a form of promissory note. The appropriate sum is paid out to employees from the Holiday Account when they take their holiday. In all, some 3000 million kroner per year are paid into the Holiday Account, involving 33 per cent. of all employees and 50 per cent. of all employers. In the case of the others, the holiday allowance is paid out under different collectively agreed arrangements. The interest on money deposited with the Holiday Account (around 190 million kroner per year), plus holiday allowance money that is left unclaimed by beneficiaries (around 37 million kroner per year), is credited to the Holiday Fund for various uses of benefit to employees for holiday purposes (e.g. subsidizing the construction of holiday accommodation). There are also approximately 200 private holiday funds in which the corresponding resources for the industries concerned are deposited.
Under §14 of the Act, employees who are employed by the month or longer and under terms and conditions such that no deductions are made from pay for sickness absence, public holidays and the like (i.e. typically all white-collar workers ) are not covered by the holiday allowance system but are entitled to receive, during their annual holiday, the normal pay applying to employment with their current employer plus a holiday bonus of 1 per cent. of their pay during the (preceding) qualifying year. At their request they may, however, be paid the holiday allowance instead. If they resign or are dismissed their entitlement in any case automatically attracts, instead, the 12 1/2 per cent. holiday allowance applicable to all other employees (for use when they take their holiday while in the employment of a new employer, where they will not, of course, receive holidays on full pay until they have completed with the new employer the qualifying period of employment conferring such entitlement).
In cases where an enterprise is closed down on the working days between Christmas and the New Year, the employer must either require employees to take such working days as part of their annual holiday if their accrued entitlement exceeds 18 days or, if it does not, continue paying them their normal pay during the closure (§17b). In addition, employees who have not accrued sufficient holiday entitlement to cover all the days for which an enterprise is closed down in this way have no claim against the employer concerning the holiday allowance provided for by the Act (§17).
If employees have not worked during the qualifying year, this means that under the rules of the Annual Holidays Act system they have not accrued any entitlement to payment for the holiday to be taken during the following year. However, in such circumstances those who are covered by unemployment insurance may be paid a holiday benefit from their Unemployment Insurance Fund during their holiday provided their lack of entitlement to holiday pay has been caused by unemployment during the qualifying year.
At the end of 1990, a committee set up by the Ministry of Labour proposed that the Annual Holidays Act system should be simplified by, for example, establishing entitlement to normal pay during holidays, rather than the holiday allowance, as the general rule.
4) Supplementary holiday arrangements. In the case of employees occupying senior posts, additional holiday entitlements are frequently agreed in the individual contract of employment.
Please note: the European industrial relations glossaries were compiled between 1991 and 2003 and are not updated. For current material see the European industrial relations dictionary.