Leave when the number of working days changes
Anyone changing the number of working days mid-year loses no leave already acquired. That is exactly what most calculators get wrong.
Your entries
The contractual entitlement, at least 20 days by law on a five-day week.
The first month with the new working time.
Result
Converting the annual entitlement wholesale with the new factor would give 18 days and therefore6 days too few. Leave already earned may not be reduced retroactively when the number of working days falls (ECJ, order of 13 June 2013, C-415/12 Brandes; Federal Labour Court, judgment of 10 February 2015, 9 AZR 53/14 (F)).
The calculation runs on working days per week, not on hours. Anyone keeping the same number of working days and simply working shorter days keeps the full holiday entitlement in days.
Calculation
- Entitlement after the change = 30 ÷ 5 × 3 = 18 days a year
- Share before = 30 ÷ 12 × 6 = 15 days
- Share after = 18 ÷ 12 × 6 = 9 days
- Total = 24 days
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How it is calculated
The conversion runs via working days
Leave entitlement is measured in days and depends on the number of working days per week, not on hours. Someone working three days instead of five has three fifths of the days of leave.
Anyone keeping the number of working days and only shortening the daily hours keeps the full entitlement in days. The individual day of leave is then worth less, but the number stays the same.
Leave already acquired stays
In its order of 13/06/2013 (C-415/12, Brandes), the European Court of Justice held that leave acquired during full-time employment must not be reduced pro rata on a switch to part-time work. The German Federal Labour Court followed suit (judgment of 10/02/2015, 9 AZR 53/14 (F)).
The calculation therefore runs per segment: for the months before the change the old entitlement applies pro rata, for the months after it the new one. The widespread approach of multiplying the whole annual entitlement by the new factor cuts retroactively and is impermissible.
The same applies in reverse for an increase
Anyone increasing the number of working days acquires the additional entitlement only from the change onwards. For the months before, the lower share stands. Here too the calculator works per segment.
Employment contracts and collective agreements may provide more favourable rules, for instance the full upward conversion from the start of the year. Those then take precedence.
Calculating once takes a minute. MetronHR carries these accounts forward continuously, for every employee, and shows the balance at the month end.
Further reading:Section 3 BUrlG · Section 5 BUrlG · ECJ, C-415/12 · Federal Labour Court, 9 AZR 53/14 (F)
The calculator covers the basic statutory rules. Collective agreements, works agreements and employment contracts may contain more favourable arrangements, and for a specific case it is better to ask someone with a licence to practise.
Frequently asked questions
What we get asked about this most often.
Not retroactively. Leave that arose during full-time work remains in full. For the time after the change, the entitlement arises according to the new number of working days. The basis is the ECJ order of 13/06/2013 (C-415/12) and the Federal Labour Court judgment of 10/02/2015 (9 AZR 53/14 (F)).
Then nothing changes about the leave entitlement in days. The entitlement depends on the number of working days per week. Anyone still working five days keeps their 20 or 30 days of leave.
Under section 5(2) BUrlG, fractions of at least half a day are rounded up to full days. The rule sits with pro rata leave; for a change during the year there is no statutory rounding rule. Many businesses round in the employees' favour anyway. The calculator shows the exact value.
A separate rule applies to parental leave: the employer can reduce the leave by one twelfth for every full month of parental leave (section 17(1) BEEG), but has to declare that explicitly. For unpaid special leave, the more recent case law of the Federal Labour Court holds that no leave entitlement arises for dormant periods.
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