Accrual of annual holiday during sick leave improves
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If an employee is incapacitated for work or absent due to rehabilitation, they cannot be denied the four weeks paid annual holiday they are entitled to under EU legislation. This is the interpretation of the EU’s Court of Justice, and therefore the law in Finland will change on 1 April 2019.
Under the Annual Holidays Act, employees currently normally accrue holiday for 75 working days if they are away from work due to illness, an accident or medical rehabilitation. However, these days equivalent to working days are not always enough for an employee to get the 4 weeks of paid annual holiday prescribed in the EU’s Working Time Directive.
Because of this a new rule on additional days off will be added to the Annual Holidays Act. In future employees will get more days off to take them to 4 weeks of paid holiday. The additional days off will be paid at a rate equivalent to regular pay. Holiday bonus will not be paid for additional days off.
If an employee’s absence lasts over 12 months, the entitlement to additional days falls.
In practice the additional days off will only become part of annual holidays a year from now, because the new law will be applied to holidays earned from the holiday credit year starting on 1 April 2019.
The new rules are mandatory, so the law applies even if the collective agreement specifies otherwise, for example on time equivalent to working time in accruing annual holiday.