Watch out for employees who want to carry over their vacation days!
The new year has just begun, and many employees will realize that they did not take all their statutory vacation days in 2021 (possibly due to the coronavirus crisis) and may ask whether they can carry over their remaining 2021 statutory vacation days to this year. However, be careful, this is not simply allowed!
Statutory annual vacation days with retention of pay had to be taken before December 31, 2021. It is not permitted, and is in fact prohibited, to carry over to 2022 the vacation days that the employee had not yet taken in 2021. Moreover, it is even up to the employer to remind the employee that vacation days remain outstanding and that these must be taken before the end of the year.
Even if the employee was unable to take the annual vacation days, for example due to illness, the unused vacation days are definitively lost. This means that, for employees (white-collar workers), you as an employer must have paid out the vacation pay for the unused vacation days by December 31, 2021 at the latest. For workers (blue-collar workers), on the other hand, these unused vacation days were covered by the vacation pay they received from their vacation fund or from the National Office for Annual Holidays.
Please note that the above applies in principle only to statutory annual vacation days with retention of pay. As an employer, you may allow employees to carry over supplementary (extra-legal) vacation days to the following year, meaning that contractual vacation days can indeed be carried over and taken in 2022. It is advisable to set a cap and a deadline for this and to include it in your work regulations as well.
Do you have questions regarding the carry-over of vacation days, or would you like your work regulations to be reviewed? Do not hesitate to contact us for advice and assistance at contact@alisadvocaten.be.
