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Question

This year, I will be taking my summer holiday in several parts, also in less than full weeks from Monday to Wednesday. Will Saturdays be “consumed” on these incomplete weeks of holiday?

Answer

According to the Annual Holidays Act, the employer determines the timing of the annual holiday. 24 days of accumulated holiday must be granted during the summer holiday season and the remaining 6 days (winter holiday) outside it. The holiday must be granted as an uninterrupted period. If it is not possible to grant the holiday as an uninterrupted period in order to keep the work going, the employer may order the part of the leave exceeding 12 normal business days to be taken in one or more parts. However, the employer and the employee may also agree that the employee takes the part of the holiday exceeding 12 normal business days in one or more periods.

If the holiday is taken in parts, the employer may not, without the consent of the employee, determine that the annual holiday will start on an employee’s day off if this would mean a reduction in the number of days holiday for the employee. An amount of holiday that is three days or less may not, without the consent of the employee, be granted if a day of that holiday would fall on a day on which the employee, under their duty schedule, has a day off.

Thus, there is no rule that the annual holiday should include a minimum number of Saturdays or that one extra day should always be deducted as Saturday’s share from the five days of holiday. Annual holiday is only consumed by normal Saturdays within the holiday period, and if the end of the holiday period is on Friday, the following Saturday, provided that the employee still has days of holiday from which the deduction can be made.

Often, ambiguity about Saturday counting towards days of holiday during a holiday arises when the holiday has been taken as less than full weeks or on weeks with public midweek holiday weeks at the employee’s request. Thus, Saturdays do not automatically count towards holiday, but this must be agreed upon. In practice, however, the employer controls the spending of employees’ holiday days by deciding on the timing of the holiday. Thus, the employer may require that when an incomplete week of holiday is agreed upon, the employee agrees on a day of holiday being on a Saturday. In this way, those who take uninterrupted holiday as well as those who take it in parts actually have the same amount of holiday.

Tips and answers from our employment lawyer are from Tradenomi magazine 2/2023 (available only in Finnish).

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