What can be agreed with regard to holidays at the start of the employment relationship?

28.8.2023 | Law

Often, in a new employment relationship, it is customary to agree on an additional holiday for the employee for their first summer, sometimes also for the first two winters, for which no annual holiday would be accrued under the Annual Holidays Act. The agreement on additional holidays should be made carefully. The agreement should include at least the following matters:

 

1 is the additional holiday paid or unpaid

To what extent will the agreed additional holiday be paid or unpaid? If holiday is accrued in accordance with the Annual Holidays Act in the employment relationship, it should be specified in the contract whether the annual holiday accrued under the legislation is part of the agreed holiday or the employee has the right to take the accrued holiday in addition to the agreed holiday.

 

2 payment of the holiday bonus

Will holiday bonus be paid for the agreed holiday? As a rule, no holiday bonus is paid for agreed holidays, unless this has been separately agreed upon.

 

3 accrual of annual holiday

According to the law, agreed holidays are not considered to be time that accumulates annual holiday. Often, the matter does not cause problems, but for the sake of clarity, it should be recorded in the contract that absence due to the agreed holiday is time that accumulates annual holiday. In particular, this applies if the holiday is completely unpaid.

 

4 not taking agreed holidays

What should be done if the agreed holidays are not taken? For example, is the employee entitled to receive monetary compensation for the holidays or can the employee take those days off later during the employment relationship?


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

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