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In the summer months in particular, it is not uncommon for employees to have overlapping vacation requests.
Many employees with school-age children want or have to take their vacation days during the school holidays in order to be able to look after them. Sometimes, however, the desired vacation days of employees can collide at work, especially in smaller teams it can get tighter in the summer months or, for example, around Christmas time, as far as staffing is concerned. This, in turn, causes headaches for some bosses, because the upcoming work – holiday wishes or not – has to be done. In many cases, the problem can be avoided if those employees who do not have to follow the school holidays give priority to scheduling their holidays at a different time. Holidays outside of the school holidays are often correspondingly cheaper anyway.
Many families want to go on holiday during the summer holidays. (Archive image/symbolic image) © Mohssen Assanimoghaddam/dpa
At the same time, some people ask themselves whether parents actually have a right to actually be able to take their vacation days during the school vacation period. How is the judgement here? According to Section 7 of the Federal Holidays Act, employers must take employees’ holiday requests into account. Unless there are urgent operational issues that stand in the way. “If more employees want to go on vacation during the holidays than the employer can absolutely do without, he has to make a selection decision,” says specialist lawyer for labor law Alexander Bredereck, according to a report by the German Press Agency (dpa).
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There is no general regulation according to which parents with school-age children then have priority over childless employees when allocating vacation time during the school holidays, as the report goes on to say. “However, the Federal Holidays Act forces employers to take social aspects into account when making selection decisions,” Bredereck said, according to dpa. “In deciding which workers to grant and deny vacation time to, he’s going to have to consider school-age children as a very strong argument in favor of those workers.”
On the other hand, according to Bredereck, employees without school-age children should not be able to take vacation during the school holidays if they have an important reason for their vacation application. “Perhaps, for example, a festival will take place during the annual holidays or you want to travel with friends who in turn have school-age children,” the expert said, according to the report. “The employer must then take into account the social concerns that the employees refer to in an overall assessment.” According to the employment lawyer, however, the legal situation here is “quite vague”. It is easiest if all employees agree on an amicable arrangement.