Postponement Of Holidays In Connection With COVID-19

Postponement of holidays

The act on postponement of holidays in connection with COVID-19 applies to holidays accrued under the old holidays act [1] and which must be taken in the holiday year 2019/2020, i.e. up to and including 30 April 2020 and in the shortened holiday year running from 1 May 2020 to 31 August 2020.

It follows from the act that if substantial, unpredictable and operational considerations so require in connection with COVID-19, holidays which cannot be taken in the relevant holiday year may be postponed to the following period.

This means that holidays which for substantial, unpredictable and operational reasons in connection with COVID-19 cannot be taken before 30 April 2020 may be postponed to be taken in the period from 1 May 2020 to 31 August 2020, with the exception that the main holiday may be taken until 30 September 2020 (the last month belonging to the period covered by the new holiday scheme). If the holidays cannot be taken in this period for the same reasons, such holidays may be postponed again to be taken in the period from 1 September 2020 to 31 December 2021 subject to the rules of the new holidays act.

The postponement of holidays may be agreed on between the employer and the employee, but it may also be imposed on the employee by the employer. Therefore, this will apply to already planned holidays and to holidays exceeding 20 days which may otherwise not be postponed pursuant to the holidays act.

If the employee has accrued holiday allowance to be used in the holiday year 2019/2020, the employer must inform the Danish Holiday Fund (Feriepengeinfo) that the holidays have been postponed.

Financial losses, if any, caused by the postponement of holidays

If the employee suffers financially from the postponement of the holidays, any such loss must be compensated by the employer.

Other measures during COVID-19?

Bird & Bird follows the updates of the measures taken by the government during COVID-19. You may read more about national and international measures on our Danish COVID-19 website and our global COVID-19 focus page.