Subsidised temporary layoffs reduce the employee’s holiday entitlement – according to a ruling of the Regional Labour Court of Düsseldorf of 12.03.2012

The Regional Labour Court (LAG) of Düsseldorf issued a ruling on 12.03.2021 which stated that subsidised temporary layoffs on partial pay reduce the holiday entitlement under Section 1 of the Federal Holiday Act (Bundesurlaubsgesetz, BUrlG). For every full month of subsidised temporary layoff, the court ruled that the holiday entitlement must be reduced by 1/12.

Grounds for the ruling: The court states that holiday is a time which should give employees the opportunity to recover from the time worked. However, no work is done during periods of subsidised temporary layoff, so the Regional Labour Court of Düsseldorf considered that the employee does not need to recover from work. The logical consequence is that there is no holiday entitlement. An appeal against this ruling is admissible (it can only be hoped that a decision on this appeal will be made at a time when subsidised temporary layoffs are no longer such a dominant universal topic).

[Regional Labour Court of Düsseldorf, ruling of 12.03.2021 – 6 Sa 824/20; Labour Court of Essen, ruling of 06.10.2020 – 1 Ca 2155/20