Annual leave

The year during which employees accrue annual leave (“leave accrual year”) is different from the calendar year: 1 April to 31 March. During that time, an employee earns either 2 or 2.5 days of leave per full month, depending on how long he or she has been employed. If, by the end of the leave accrual year, employment has continuously lasted less than a year, the employee generally has the right to two days of annual leave for each full month. When employment has lasted more than a year, the employee earns 2.5 days of annual leave for each full month. The transition from earning two days per month to 2.5 days per month is always on 1 April. When calculating the length of annual leave, the number of leave days is rounded up to the nearest full day.

Either the 14-day rule or the 35-hour rule is used for earning annual leave. The 14-day rule applies to employees whose contract says they work at least 14 days each month, every month. The 35-hour rule applies to employees who do not meet the conditions of the 14-day rule and who instead work at least 35 hours a month. Only one rule applies to an employee at a time, not both.

For employees under the 14-day rule, every month they work for 14 days or the equivalent of days at work counts as a full month for earning leave. For employees under the 35-hour rule, every month they work for 35 hours or the equivalent of hours at work counts as a full month for earning leave.