Does an employee who takes a childcare leave in a given calendar year get the right to a vacation leave? If so, to what extent? The HR department of our accounting company, PRWT, encounters such questions on a daily basis.

In practice, the answer to the above questions always requires a case-by-case analysis. According to the general rule contained in Art. 153 par. 2 of the polish Labor Code, an employee acquires the right to subsequent leaves in each subsequent calendar year. The provisions of the polish Labor Code (Article 155 ²), however, regulate situations in which the employee’s absence from work has an impact on the amount of the holiday leave he / she is entitled to. If an employee is absent in a given calendar year due to, inter alia, the parental leave lasted at least one month, the employee’s vacation leave is proportionally reduced. What does this mean exactly?

Below is an example to better understand this mechanism:

An employee with 10 years of work experience (thus entitled to 26 days of vacation leave), from November 5, 2020 to January 20, 2021, was on a childcare leave. How much leave is an employee entitled to in 2021?

Due to the fact that in 2021 the Employee used the childcare leave for a period shorter than 1 month, the Employee will be entitled to a full holiday leave – 26 days.

If the employee from our example in 2021 stayed on leave for more than 30 days, then the length of his leave would be proportionally reduced on the principles set out in Art. 155 ¹ paragraph. 1 point 2 of the polish Labor Code.