In Denmark, we have been used to holiday pay being earned in a calendar year spanning from 1 January to 31 December, and days of holiday being taken the year after, in the so-called ‘holiday year’ spanning from 1 May to 30 April. However, as of 1 January 2019, this has changed with the coming into effect of the new Holiday Act.
With the new Holiday Act, you are entitled to the same number of days of holiday as you were under the old legislation, and you do not have to take any new action or do anything differently from how you usually do things.
The primary aim of the new Holiday Act is to give newcomers in the labour market (new graduates or new arrivals to Denmark) the right to holiday with pay from the first day of their employment, rather than having to wait until the following holiday year.
'Concurrent holiday' - a new approach
The new approach in the Holiday Act is the concept of ‘concurrent holiday’, which stipulates that from 1 September 2020 it will be possible to take holiday as it is accrued.
From 1 September to 31 August (the new holiday year) you will accrue 25 days of holiday. This may be taken during that holiday year plus an additional four months, that is from 1 September to 31 December of the following year. This gives you 16 months in which to use your days of holiday.
Transition period for the new Holiday Act
From 1 January to 31 August 2019, you will earn 2.08 days of holiday a month, which you may take in the period from 1 May to 1 September 2020, after which time concurrent holiday will take effect. Any remaining days of holiday will automatically carry over on 1 September 2020.
The days of holiday you accrue from 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2020 will be frozen and paid out to you as holiday allowance when you leave the Danish labour market. In other words, these accrued days of holiday are left over when the labour market transitions to the new concurrent holiday system, and disbursed instead.
Your frozen holiday pay will be administered by a new fund: Lønmodtagernes Feriemidler. The fund is tasked with managing, administering and safeguarding the money until the day you leave the Danish labour market.
We will follow up on the new holiday rules in future newsletters. You are also welcome to write or call Djøf for advice on the new Holiday Act.