Remaining leave at the end of the year - rights and obligations under employment law

According to the German Federal Leave Act, vacation must be granted and taken in the current calendar year. Unused vacation days therefore generally expire on December 31 of the year. This mechanism is intended to ensure that employees actually use their vacation time and do not continuously accumulate it. If the leave is not taken by then, there is no longer any entitlement to days off in the following year without special regulations.

However, there are legal exceptions that allow the remaining vacation to be carried over to the next calendar year. According to Section 7 (3) of the Federal Leave Act, leave can be carried over if there are urgent operational reasons or reasons relating to the employee, such as prolonged illness or other objective obstacles that prevented leave from being taken in the previous year. In these cases, the leave must be taken in the new year by March 31 at the latest, otherwise this entitlement also expires. If leave is not carried over, the entitlement ends at the turn of the year.

It is important to note that the leave entitlement does not automatically expire if the employer has not fulfilled its obligation to cooperate. According to current case law, employers must inform employees in good time of their remaining vacation entitlement and ask them to take it. If the employer does not comply with this obligation, the vacation entitlement remains in place and can also be claimed beyond the end of the year. This obligation to cooperate is intended to ensure that employees actually have the opportunity to use their leave, as required by the European Working Time Directive.

For employees, this means that vacation days not taken do not automatically have to be lost if the employer has breached its duty to inform. However, they should clarify year-end planning and vacation entitlements as early as possible, especially if vacation could not be taken for urgent personal reasons. For employers, this results in a clear obligation to proactively plan and communicate vacation. A lack of information about remaining leave can lead to leave days being claimed even after the end of the year - and possibly years later if there was no clear cooperation.

Remaining leave at the end of the year is a widespread employment law issue with concrete consequences for employees and companies. Although the principle applies that leave must be taken in the current year, carry-over rules and the employer's duty to cooperate change the legal assessment considerably. Employees should know their vacation entitlements and clarify them in good time in case of doubt, while employers should ensure transparent vacation communication in order to avoid disputes later on.