From when are you entitled to holiday?

Chapters of the article

• What type of leave you are entitled to
• Reduction of leave
• What to do with unused leave?
• Probationary leave
• Leave when working on an I.T.O
• FTE, FTE and leave

What type of leave you are entitled to

If the statutory conditions are met, the employee is entitled to: annual leave or a pro rata part thereof, leave for days worked or additional leave.

Annual leave

An employee is entitled to annual leave if he has been employed for at least one year and has worked at least 60 days of that period. The standard paid leave is 160 hours, 8 weeks for teachers and educators. This minimum period of leave is set by the Labour Code, but you can agree with your employer on a longer period of leave.

Proportionate part of leave

If you have been employed by your employer for less than a year and have worked for 60 days, you are entitled to a pro rata share of your holiday, i.e. 1/52 for each week worked out of the total holiday.

For example, if you work 30 weeks for an employer who gives you four weeks’ holiday per year, you will be entitled to 93 hours’ holiday:

• First, find the number of hours of leave (multiply the weekly hours by the number of weeks of leave): 40 × 4 = 160,
• divide the result by 52 to find how many hours of holiday per week the employee is entitled to if he works the whole year: 160 ÷ 52 = 3.07.
• finally, multiply the result by the actual number of weeks worked: 3.07 × 30 = 92.1.

The incomplete hours are rounded up to give a holiday entitlement of 93 hours.

Leave for days worked

However, if you have not yet worked 60 days, you are only entitled to holiday for days worked. Specifically, you are entitled to 1/12 of your holiday for every 21 days worked.

Therefore, an employee may be entitled to annual leave for one or two twelfths of the annual leave (for at least 21 or 42 days worked), but if the employee has worked a further 21 days, the number of days worked would already exceed 60 and the employee would be entitled to annual leave or a pro rata part thereof.

Additional leave

Employees who work in difficult conditions, such as miners or emergency workers, are entitled to an extra week of leave, known as Additional Leave.

Reduction of leave

If an employee misses work for certain reasons and misses shifts, the employer can cut their leave short. This can only be done if the work was interfered with and is not considered work under the law. Thus, leave cannot be reduced for absence for reasons of absence, employer-related obstacles, maternity leave (or taking parental leave instead of maternity leave, in which case it is only counted to the extent that the woman can take maternity leave), temporary incapacity for work due to an occupational injury or disease, taking leave, holidays or compensatory time off for working overtime or on a public holiday. Conversely, leave may be curtailed, for example, in the event of absence due to long-term illness not caused by an occupational accident or disease.

The employer may reduce leave by 1/12 for the first 100 days of such absence and again by 1/12 for each additional 21 days. For each day so missed, the employer may deduct 1 day from the leave . Shorter periods of unexcused absence may be cumulative. However, an employee who has been employed for a full year may not have his leave reduced in this way to less than 2 weeks.

What about unused vacation time?

Untaken leave is carried over to the following year. The employer primarily determines the period of use. It should do so according to certain rules, including that the employee should use the leave in the year for which it is due, but if certain circumstances prevent this and the leave is not used in that year, it is carried over to the next year, with the proviso that if the employer does not determine the time of use of this “old” leave by 30 June of the following year, the employee must determine it himself or herself, giving the employer at least 14 days’ notice.

Leave during the probationary period

Probationary leave is not customary; the primary purpose of the probationary period is for the employee and the employer to get to know each other. It is therefore not very common for an employee to take leave during the first 3 months in a new job. However, the Labour Code does not restrict the taking of leave in this way and does not lay down any rules other than those applicable outside the probationary period. However, the probationary period is also extended by a full day’s leave. Entitlement to leave, however, does not arise until a certain period of time has been served.

It is up to the employer whether or not to allow the employee to take leave during the probationary period. However, it is very unlikely that with so few days worked, the employer will allow the employee to take leave during the probationary period.

Holidays when working on an IČO

As a sole trader working “on your own” you are not entitled to holiday. The holiday is paid by the employer, which, of course, a person working under an IČO does not have.

However, a different situation arises if you work as a self-employed person, but for one company for a long time. This is called a shvarcsystem, which is not legal in the Czech Republic, but nevertheless this prohibition is often circumvented and therefore is not exceptional. In the case of a shvarcsystem, you are therefore entitled to paid leave.

FTE, FTE and holidays

Agreements on work outside the employment relationship, i.e. the so-called FTE and FTE, are not covered by the statutory holiday regulations, i.e. they are not entitled to it by law.