The change in the calculation of vacation days is part of the revision of the Labor Law and will be implemented in 2021. The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs participated in this change together with companies and trade unions.
The current four weeks of mandatory statutory leave will remain unchanged. The Minister of Labor himself would like to support the Communist Party\’s proposal to add a mandatory fifth week of leave, but this proposal has not received such support.
In practice, days off are deducted on a daily basis, but the problem is that the working day is not always the same, nor is it always only eight hours long. This difference is most pronounced for workers who work shifts in factories or in the transportation industry: some shifts are 12 hours long, others are 6 hours long. Office workers are no exception; clerks spend different amounts of time in the office during the work day and outside of work hours.
This difference can be illustrated using the example of two workers. If there are two workers who work different shifts, and one worker takes vacation only when the longer shift is on, and the other worker takes vacation only on days when the shorter shift is on, it is obvious that the first worker takes much more vacation per hour than the second worker.
According to the council members, vacation entitlement should be based on hours worked, not days. This change would take into account how many hours an employee actually worked. After working a certain number of hours, the employee would be entitled to vacation time.
[According to the Ministry of Labor, the current system is unfair and does not even adhere to the principle of equal treatment of workers. The amendments also seek to address the emergence of part-time work and the increasingly popular “home office” or telecommuting. These employees are able to set their own work hours and complete their tasks in shorter periods of time.
The law should be amended to simplify the carryover of unused leave to the following year. Currently, the law states that annual leave must be taken within the year. If an employee takes leave in excess of the legal holiday, it would be possible to carry it over to the following year.