IBJ-IJE (Instituut voor bedrijfsjuristen - Institut des juristes d'entreprise)’s Post

❗❗Acerta’s Insights on Sick Days and Vacation Leave ❗❗ Recently, I discussed what happens when you fall ill during your holidays and how statutory leave days can be recuperated. Yesterday, Acerta published an insightful article shedding light on this topic, including some revealing statistics and clarifications. According to Acerta, since the introduction of this regulation (January 1, 2024), only 0.0265% of Belgian workers—that’s 1 ❗in 3,772—have converted vacation days into sick leave this year. A short recap of key facts: ▪️ Recuperation: Vacation days lost due to illness can be reclaimed within the same work year. ▪️ 24 Months❗: If you're unable to use these days by the year's end, they can be carried forward for up to 24 months. ▪️ Guaranteed Salary: Workers retain their right to guaranteed pay during illness. ▪️ Payment on 31/12: Any unused vacation days from the current year are paid out at the end of December. However❗, carried-over days are not paid separately when taken later, as they have already been compensated. For more details, check out Acerta's article here: https://lnkd.in/e-jm5fQx #HR #employeerights #belgianlabourlaw #sickleave #vacations #laborregulations #Acerta #worklifebalance #Belgium

COUNTDOWN: ONLY 2 MONTHS UNTIL 2025! 🎄🎆 As the year wraps up, it’s a great time to remind your employees about the remaining vacation days. With 2025 just around the corner, it’s essential for employees to check their vacation balance and plan accordingly. ✅🏝️ Have All Legal Vacation Days Been Taken? Employees should in principle use all their legal vacation days by the end of the calendar year. However, new EU-aligned legislation now allows limited carryover in certain limited cases, such as: - Occupational illness or work-related accident ; - Medical incapacity from illness or injury ; - Maternity, paternity, breastfeeding, adoption, or foster care leave. ⚠️ Note: Even if the legal vacation days are carried over, the associated holiday pay for 2024 must be settled by 31 December 2024. 📝 Extra-Legal Vacation Days: the company policy can allow employees to carry over outstanding extra-legal days. We recommend limiting the period in which these transferred extra legal vacation days can be used (e.g., by the end of April of the following year) to prevent the continued accumulation of leave days. ✅  🗓️ Have You Set the Replacement Public Holidays for 2025?  In 2025, there is only one day (1 November 2025) to be replaced. You can contact Bart Elias and Yanouck Potters or your trusted Vialto Partners Belgium contact for more information! #VialtoPartnersBelgium #GlobalMobility #Vacationdays  #InternationalPayroll #YearendPreparation

New Zealand employees get comparatively long holidays with several weeks’ leave plus 11 statutory days. Employers must provide these holidays as paid leave. If a person needs to work on one of those days, he will need to be paid time and a half AND a day in lieu. #Employment #Leave #workinginnewzealand

Mid Week Legislation Drop Holiday Entitlement Changes to Working Time Regulations has seen a U-Turn on how holiday entitlement is calculated. In 2022 the case of Harpur Trust v Brazel heard in the Supreme Court found that part-year workers (term time, agency, casual, irregular hour and zero hour workers) would no longer have their holiday pay calculated by the 12.07% method. Therefore, all staff were entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid annual leave each year. Meaning, a permanent contract which saw an employee work just during exam period, an exam invigilator would receive 5.6 weeks’ holiday pay for 2 weeks work. Lucky for some! On the flip side those that worked on a part-time non-permanent basis, that worked more than their colleague would receive less holiday. The new (old) reforms will apply for leave years beginning on or after 1st April 2024. If your leave year starts on 1st January you will have to wait till 1st January 2025 for this to apply to you. The new reform will see holiday entitlement calculated as 12.07% of actual hours worked in a pay period, up to a maximum of 5.6 weeks. This applies to the statutory minimum holiday entitlement, if your employer has offered more leave than the legal minimum holiday entitlement they do not have to apply the same rules to the additional extra leave. The government website (found below in the comments) have broken down some amazing examples and calculations for those of you that want to calculate your holiday entitlement, depending on your work situation, as well as how sick leave, maternity or family related leave affects these calculations. #holidaypay #weeklylegislationdrop #employmentlaw

One common misconception among employers is that they can require employees to use vacation days for religious holidays that don’t fall on statutory holidays. Stuart cleared things up for HR News Canada. #EmploymentLaw #Christmas

Do you ever feel like you need a vacation to prepare or catch up for your vacation? On average, workers who took vacation this in 2024 say they paid 13.6 extra hours in "time-off tax", which is the additional time worked before and after a one-week vacation to prepare and catch up on work, on top their regular work hours. We're taking a step in the right direction as this is less than in previous years, with respondents estimated clocking in 20 extra hours in 2022 and 18 hours in 2023. However, Gen Z is still estimating 23 extra hours worked around their vacation time. Read the full Index – https://lnkd.in/eJws-qHr *Workers in Canada surveyed. #ADPCanada #HappinessAtWork #HappinessAtWorkIndex #HAW

Why Choose Working in Germany Over the USA In the United States, the best job benefits may sound appealing: no more than 40 hours of work per week, three weeks of paid vacation after a year, six weeks of paid maternity leave, three weeks of sick days, and affordable health insurance. However, these benefits wouldn't even meet the basic standards in Germany. In Germany, there's no "at-will" employment – every job requires a contract, and you can't be fired just because the employer feels like it. The workweek is capped at 40 hours, with a minimum of 20 paid vacation days, six weeks of paid sick leave per year, and fully paid maternity leave (six weeks before birth and eight weeks after). Moreover, in Germany, employers can't contact you after working hours. Employees are also entitled to up to three years of parental leave. Interestingly, many companies that operate in the U.S. also follow these rules in Germany without issue.

Do you ever feel like you need a vacation to prepare or catch up for your vacation? On average, workers who took vacation this in 2024 say they paid 13.6 extra hours in "time-off tax", which is the additional time worked before and after a one-week vacation to prepare and catch up on work, on top their regular work hours. We're taking a step in the right direction as this is less than in previous years, with respondents estimated clocking in 20 extra hours in 2022 and 18 hours in 2023. However, Gen Z is still estimating 23 extra hours worked around their vacation time. Read the full Index – https://lnkd.in/gqz6QpbN *Workers in Canada surveyed. #ADPCanada #HappinessAtWork #HappinessAtWorkIndex #HAW

Employment: How to use 15 leave days to score 38 days off in 2025! In South Africa, the average formally employed worker is entitled to 15 days of annual leave in addition to public holidays. For many employees, planning to leave around public holidays is a strategic way to maximise time off while minimising the use of leave days. In 2025, South Africans will have one fewer public holiday compared to previous years, but there are still multiple opportunities to take advantage of long weekends, providing plenty of scope to stretch those 15 leave days into extended vacations. By carefully planning around the country’s 12 public holidays, workers can enjoy 38 days of time off while using just 15 leave days, making 2025 a year with more long weekends despite the reduction in holidays. Don't say that I didn't plug you🤣. https://lnkd.in/dsAMHTEW

As we are approaching the end of the year, for many employers the holiday year ends on 31st December. This means you will need to start looking at how much holiday your staff have left to use and need to take. You will want to avoid any last minute rush to use holiday up. Christmas clashes and ensure a fully resourced workplace. What should employers do? ✅ firstly, look at what holiday your staff have used so far and how much they have left to use. ✅ be clear about what the Christmas leave arrangements are. For example how many people are required to be working over the Christmas period (if the company is open). ✅ if you are requiring staff to use their holiday to cover the Christmas period when the workplace is closed, then you should make them aware of this (ideally at the beginning of each leave year). ✅ for those staff who have leave left to take, in the first instance, let them know and ask them to book the leave - following the normal booking procedure. ✅ inform staff that if they don't book the leave, then you will impose the leave and schedule the dates. ✅ where an employer imposes leave, they must give twice the notice as the leave they wish the person to take. For example if you want someone to take 1 week leave, you must give them 2 weeks notice. As a reminder, outstanding leave cannot be paid in lieu unless on termination of employment, nor can it be carried over unless the holiday entitlement is greater than 28 days. It can, however, be carried over to the next year if the individual has been on long term sickness absence or maternity leave. If you need assistance, contact the Hill HR team #holidayentitlement #annualleave