Holiday shutdown at your place of work - your rights

Some enterprises shut down collectively in the summer holidays. It may either be the entire enterprise or a limited part, such as a production unit. If your place of work has a collective holiday shutdown, your employer may demand that you take holiday even if you have not earned entitlement to paid holiday. If you are owed holiday pay, you can apply for it.

Under the Danish Holiday Act the employer is entitled to decide when you take a holiday. Your employer must, to the extent possible, meet your wish and take especially into account employees with children attending school. But generally, the employer can request you to take holiday when the enterprise is shut down for holidays.

The employer must give you at least 3 months' notice before they want you to take your main holiday. If substantial, unforeseen operational matters occur, your employer may in fact also change any holiday previously arranged. In such cases, you must be compensated for any financial loss (e.g. a trip that can be documented to have been purchased) as a result of the postponement. A holiday that has already started cannot be interrupted.

If you start a new job in an enterprise that shuts down for holidays, the deadlines for notification of 1 or 3 three months can be deviated from. In such case, the employer must, at the time of hiring or immediately thereafter, inform you as a newly hired employee that the enterprise has holiday shutdown.

Have you not earned entitlement to paid holiday?

If you are in your first job and you have not earned entitlement to paid holiday, you will have to take holiday without pay. If, on the other hand, you have been unemployed, holiday pay might be paid for the period.

The right to holiday pay presupposes that you comply with the general rules for entitlement to benefits. The holiday pay will usually also constitute the same amount that you can otherwise receive as benefits.

If you have been dismissed

If you are dismissed by your employer, your 3 weeks of main holiday can only be scheduled in the period under notice if one of the following four requirements has been met:

  1. You accept it yourself
  2. Your notice period is longer than 3 months
  3. Your notice period will be extended by the number of days of holiday
  4. The collective agreement entitles your employer to do so

Your employer has the right to schedule the remaining holiday in your period under notice if you are notified at least one month before the holiday starts.
When you leave your job, your holiday pay must always be calculated at 12.5% of the salary that qualifies for holiday with pay and that you have earned in the qualifying year in question.

Read more about your terms if you have been dismissed

Are you a graduate?

If you have graduated in the qualifying year or later, special rules apply. The right to holiday pay depends on when you graduated and which education you have taken.
Therefore, the rights are very individual, so you must contact HK's unemployment fund to obtain guidance.