The new Holiday Act
– a guide for employees
As everyone knows, the new Danish Holiday Act comes into force on 1 September 2020. It brings a number of new rules and conditions for you as an employee that are important to know about.
We've made this guide to give you, as an employee, an introduction to holiday once the new Holiday Act has come into force.
Accruing holiday
All employees – both salaried and hourly paid – accrue 2.08 days of holiday a month. That's a total of 25 days of holiday, or 5 weeks of holiday, in a year.
For each month of employment, you accrue days of holiday that can be used as early as the month after they are accrued.
The period for accruing holiday runs from 1 September to 31 August, which means a new holiday year now starts on 1 September every year.
If you're a salaried employee
Salaried employees accrue 2.08 days of holiday with pay for each month of employment. You also accrue a holiday allowance of 1%.
The vast majority of employers will pay holiday allowance twice a year – on 31 May and 31 August.
If you're paid by the hour
If you're paid by the hour, you also accrue 2.08 days of holiday a month, plus holiday pay of 12.5%. Your accrued holiday pay is paid into a holiday account for each month's accrual and paid out when you take holiday.
Taking holiday
Under the new Holiday Act, holiday is taken over 16 months, in the period from 1 September in one year to 31 December the next year.
As an employee, you're entitled to take 25 days of holiday, whether or not you've accrued holiday with your current employer. The days of holiday you haven't accrued are taken at your own expense.
Holiday in advance
Some companies offer their employees a scheme for taking holiday in advance. In practice, this means you may borrow the days of holiday you will accrue in the future and use them before you have actually accrued them.
Ask your employer whether your company offers a scheme for holiday in advance.
Extra days off
Extra days off, or the 6th holiday week as it's also called, aren't part of the new Holiday Act and are therefore subject to other conditions.
If you have extra days off, there may be changes to the period for accruing and taking them.
Ask your employer about the conditions that apply to extra days off.
Keep an eye on your holiday balance
In Zenegy, you can always keep an eye on your current holiday balance on your phone or on the web. After each payday, you'll see the holiday you've accrued, and when you take holiday, you can keep track of your remaining holiday at the same time.
Download the Zenegy employee app to your phone and learn more about your pay, holiday, payments and much more.
