Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on employees’ planned holidays
Apr 02, 2020
The Easter holidays are right around the corner, but many people who had holidays planned will have to postpone their vacation plans because of the current lockdown measures and the (partial) closure of our borders. Others may want to cancel their holiday plans altogether because they want to continue working in the next few weeks and take up their holidays later this year. What should employers do when they are confronted with questions from their employees on their planned holidays in the midst of these turbulent times?
What happens to the planned holidays?
Employees accrue holiday rights on the basis of the time that they’ve worked during the previous calendar year. An employee who worked full-time during the entire year of 2019, will have an entitlement to 20 statutory holidays in 2020.
As long as the employee takes up these 20 holidays in the course of 2020, he is - in principle - free to determine when and for how long he would want to take time off from work. The only exception to this rule is the collective closure of the company, which forces all employees of the company to take their holidays during a fixed period.
Of course, employees cannot simply unilaterally decide when to take time off and for how long. Nor can employers simply force their employees to take time off. Scheduling holidays should always be done in mutual agreement between the employee and the employer. This principle allows both parties to have the necessary flexibility. Employees can - within limits - choose to take time off, when it suits them best and employers can in this way ensure the necessary business continuity.
But what if the employee had already planned his easter holidays somewhere in the next few weeks and now realises that he can’t go on his foreign vacation or that a “staycation” doesn't seem so attractive any longer? Maybe the employee prefers to continue working instead of spending some of his already limited time off in these strange times.
Also in this scenario the employee and the employer must abide by the same rule. Since the planning of holidays requires a mutual agreement from both the employee and the employer, such agreement must also be reached when rescheduling or cancelling the holidays which had already been planned.
Consequently, when one of your employees had holidays planned and would like to cancel them and work anyway - thus save the accrued holidays for a later moment in summer or fall - the employer must approve this and has the right to refuse this request. In return the employer cannot oblige already planned and approved holidays to be cancelled and have the employee come to work, without the latter’s consent.
Planned holidays and temporary unemployment
On 24 March 2020, 1.075 million Belgian employees were enrolled in the schedule of temporary unemployment due to the on-going Covid-19 outbreak, with this number increasing day by day.
Employees enrolled in this scheme have their employment relationship with their employer temporarily suspended, either partially or entirely. As a result of this temporary suspension, the employee is no longer required to perform actual labour. Consequently, the employer is of course no longer required to pay a salary to the employee or grant him any of the benefits to which the employee is normally entitled. In other words, the temporary unemployment relieves both the employee and the employer from their mutual obligations.
But what if an employee is currently enrolled in the scheme of temporary unemployment for the next few weeks, but had planned some time off during the coming Easter break?
The employee could choose to reschedule his holidays, but as mentioned above this can’t be done unilaterally. The holidays were planned in mutual agreement, so they must also be cancelled in mutual agreement. The employer will thus need to agree to this cancellation first.
If no agreement, either at the request of the employer or the employee, can be reached on rescheduling or cancelling the planned holidays in the next few weeks, the temporary unemployed employee will be entitled to his normal daily salary, at charge of the employer, for every day of holidays that he takes. The employer will have to notify the RVA/ONEM of these holidays in his written or electronic notification, because the employee will not be entitled to unemployment benefits for these days. The same principle of course applies to blue-collar workers who receive their holiday pay from the RJV/ONVA. On the days of planned holidays the employee will thus not receive (limited and capped) unemployment benefits, but will receive his normal (uncapped) salary or holiday pay.
Conclusion
In these difficult times, many employers and employees struggle with questions on holiday entitlement. Can I force my employees to take up some of their holidays in the next few weeks to mitigate the cost structure and impact of the current Covid-19 crisis? Can I force my employees who are in temporary unemployment to cancel their planned holidays so that I avoid having to pay holiday pay? Can employees unilaterally decide to cancel their planned holiday?
The answer to all of these questions is “no”. Neither of both parties can unilaterally take any decision on the planning, rescheduling or cancellation of holidays. Of course, employer and employee are free to reach an agreement on rescheduling planned holidays, taking into account the needs of both parties in these challenging circumstances.
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