Home/Geen categorie/Sick employees’ leave days: do they expire?
It is often the case that sick employees are not able to take all their leave days before the statutory expiration date. What happens to the expiry period in such cases? We will let you know in this blog!
Many misconceptions exist around the topic of leave and sick employees. In principle, statutory leave days will expire 6 months after the year in which they were granted. It is not allowed to impose a shorter expiry period, but under certain conditions, you may employ a longer expiry period. Has an employee not been able to take all their statutory leave days, with reason? Their prospect of a vacation is not lost: in that case, an expiry period of five years after the year in which it was granted will be used. This means that employees who are dealing with a long-term illness will not immediately lose the right to a vacation.
When can you say that an employee has not been able to take all their statutory leave with reason? This rule can be interpreted in many different ways. Luckily, the law is very clear in this respect: the expiry period of vacation days will be prolonged when a sick employee is not going to rehabilitate before the expiration date is reached. If the employee already has rehabilitation obligations, it is usually the case that they are also able to take leave. In that case, the normal agreements apply, and the statutory leave days will expire.
In some cases, leave days exceeding the statutory minimum which have not been used may be paid out early or canceled by employers. Such decisions need to be discussed between employee and employer and agreed upon by both.
In the end, it is the company doctor who decides whether a vacation would have a positive or a negative influence on the rehabilitating employee. When the judgment results in the sick employee taking leave, they will have a right to the entire amount of salary for those days.
Leave-taking and expiration: good registration required!
Would you like an easy way to remain organized when it comes to leave days and their expiry periods? Try working with a user-friendly, cloud-based leave registration system. This helps keep you and your employees up to date at all times.
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