You get paid if you don't 'use' all your vacation days.

I get 12 days of annual leave each year. My company has a rule that if I don't "use it all up" I will lose it. Is this correct?

My company has a rule that employees have 12 days of annual leave, which is extended to the second quarter of the following year. If the employee does not "use it all", the remaining leave will be lost.

Please ask, is this regulation correct?

Reply:

According to Article 111 of the 2012 Labor Code, enterprises must develop annual leave plans for employees.

If employees do not take all their leave and go to work as usual, the company must pay them. If they want to accumulate it to the next year to have a longer leave period, they must continue to combine it, up to three years at a time.

Specifically: "1. Employees who have worked for an employer for 12 months are entitled to annual leave with full pay according to the labor contract as follows:

a) 12 working days for employees working under normal conditions;

b) 14 working days for people doing heavy, toxic, or dangerous work or people working in places with harsh living conditions according to the list issued by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs in coordination with the Ministry of Health, or for underage workers or workers with disabilities;

c) 16 working days for people doing especially heavy, toxic, or dangerous work or people working in places with especially harsh living conditions according to the list issued by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs in coordination with the Ministry of Health.

2. Employers have the right to set annual leave schedules after consulting with employees and must notify employees in advance.

3. Employees may agree with their employers to take annual leave in several installments or combine leave for up to three years at a time.

4. When taking annual leave, if an employee travels by road, rail or waterway and the number of days of round trip travel is more than two days, from the third day onwards, the travel time will be calculated in addition to the annual leave and will only be counted as one leave per year.

In case after the leave has been accumulated to the next year, the employee still does not take leave and has remaining leave, the company must pay.This is stipulated in the collective labor agreement between the two parties and Article 26 of Decree 05/2015/ND-CP guiding a number of contents of the Labor Code.

Accordingly, the salary used as the basis for payment to employees for days of annual leave not taken or days of annual leave not taken is stipulated as follows:

a) For employees who have worked for 6 months or more, the average salary according to the labor contract of the 6 consecutive months before the employee quits or loses his/her job. For employees who have not taken annual leave or have not taken all of their annual leave for other reasons, the average salary according to the labor contract of the 6 consecutive months before the employer calculates to pay in cash for the days not taken off annually;

b) For employees with a working period of less than six months, it is the average salary according to the labor contract for the entire working period.

The salary paid to employees for days of annual leave not taken or not used up is the salary prescribed in Clause 3 of this Article divided by the number of normal working days as prescribed by the employer in the previous month immediately preceding the time the employer calculates the payment, multiplied by the number of days of annual leave not taken or not used up.

Le Van Thanh
Deputy Director of the Department of Labor Relations and Wages
Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs

According to VNE