Denmark: Revisions to holiday accrual rules take effect 

Denmark: Revisions to holiday accrual rules take effect
September 01, 2020

Changes to Denmark’s law on holiday entitlement — enacted in 2018 — took effect on 1 Sep 2020, allowing employees to take their leave as it accrues. Under the old law, leave accrued in one calendar year could not be used until May of the following year, which meant that newly hired employees, or employees transferring to work in Denmark, could not take holiday for the first 18 months of their employment. The change aligns Danish law with the EU directive on working time that includes an annual entitlement to four weeks of paid holiday.  

Employees can now accrue their holiday entitlement from 1 September in one year to 31 August in the following year and have an additional four months to take their accrued holiday. Employers were required to make certain changes prior to 1 Sep 2020, including communicating the new holiday accrual arrangements to employees, updating collective agreements, and adjusting employment contracts and HR systems. Recent government action to address effects of COVID-19 also affected accrued holiday measures in place during the transitional period from 1 Sep 2019 to 31 Aug 2020. 

Related resources

About the author(s)
Related Solutions
Related insights
Related Case Studies
Curated