RSU Expert: What to Keep in Mind When Planning Your Annual Leave

Irrespective of whether you work for a state institution or a private company, every employee is entitled to four weeks of paid annual leave if you have worked for the employer for at least half a year without interruption. Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) assistant professor in the Faculty of Law, Inga Kudeikina explains different aspects of taking annual paid leave: whether it can remain unused, which employee has the advantage to go on leave in summer, who can take unpaid leave and who is entitled to additional days off and whether the employer can force the employee to go on unpaid leave. 

The employee has to take annual leave in the respective calendar year and unused annual leave is not compensated. "Unused annual leave is transferred to the following year, however remember that unused holidays can be transferred only to the next year and this option can be applied to only two out of four weeks of the annual leave”,  Inga Kudeikina explains the procedure for taking vacation leave.  Unused vacation leave is not transferred to the next year for employees who are minors, to pregnant, postnatal (until the child reaches 1 year of age) and breastfeeding employees (during the entire breastfeeding period, however not longer than up to 2 years of age).

When granting annual leave, as far as is reasonably practicable, the employer has to consider the employee’s preferences and needs. It is preferable to grant all four weeks of the annual leave to be taken consecutively and to split the annual leave only in exceptional cases, provided that the uninterrupted leave is at least two weeks in length. In summer, when the majority of employees want to go on leave, preference should be given to: 

• employees who have not reached the age of 18; 
• employees who have a child up to 3 years of age or a child with a disability under the age of 18.

Employees who constitute a specially protected group that is entitled to additional annual leave, are:

• employees with three or more children under the age of 16 or a child with a disability under the age of 18 years; 
• employees whose work is associated with special risks – at least three working days; 
• employees with less than three children under 14 years of age – at least one working day.

"In the collective agreement or the employment contract the employee and the employer may agree on other situations entitling the employee to paid supplementary leave, e.g. shift work, long term employment with the company etc." she adds. Employees are also entitled to leave without pay. Such leave may be granted only upon request of the employee and the employer does not have the right to insist that the employee goes on leave without pay.  

"The right to paid annual leave constitutes a fundamental right that is guaranteed by international law and the Constitution of the Republic of Latvia. The procedure for using the entitlement to annual leave is regulated by Labour Law. Therefore I would recommend that employers and employees approach the issue regarding the granting and taking of annual leave responsibly," RSU assistant professor Inga Kudeikina encourages to be informed on one’s rights.