The amendment to the Labour Code at the beginning of 2021 brought among other things changes to the assessment of leave entitlement, with a significant change in the concept of leave.
It is no longer envisaged that it will be reduced or partly reduced if the condition of 60 days of work and absence from work for at least 100 days due to certain obstacles to work is met. Now, such obstacles to work will be included in working time up to a maximum of 20 times the fixed (shorter) weekly period per calendar year.
A condition has also been laid down for including such obstacles to work in working time. In addition to such work-related obstacles, the employee must work at least 12 times the (shorter) weekly working time in the year in question.
On the other hand, the range of important personal obstacles to work that are not included in this limit has been extended, and these are included in performance of work to their full extent. These are:
- temporary incapacity for work, except for incapacity for work resulting from an occupational accident or disease;
- quarantine ordered under another legal provision;
- taking of parental leave, except for the period during which the employee takes parental leave until the period during which the employee is entitled to take maternity leave;
- other important personal obstacles to work.
The Act thus divides all obstacles to an employee’s work into two categories – the first, which is included in the number of hours worked by the employee, and the second, which is not. It is therefore also necessary to express obstacles to work in hours according to the length of the employee’s shift or part of the shift when they occurred.
The following formula is used to calculate leave entitlement in hours:
(weekly working time in hours x time worked in weeks x number of weeks of leave) : 52
The result in hours of leave entitlement is then rounded up to whole hours.
For example, an employee whose employer provides 5 weeks of leave, whose weekly working time is 40 hours, and who will take all her maternity leave and start parental leave immediately after the end of her maternity leave will be entitled to a maximum of 23 days and 1 hour of leave (184.61 ≐ 185 hours).
In this case, the time worked in weeks is 48 weeks (28 weeks for maternity leave and a maximum of 20 weeks for subsequent parental leave).
