Holiday entitlement at the mini-job

Holiday entitlement at the mini-job

Important note on marginal employment Like all employees, marginally employed persons are entitled to holidays in proportion to their employment. However, there is a special provision to be observed here, which is regulated by the Part-Time and Fixed-Term Act.

The leave entitlement is not calculated in the ratio of working hours to full time, but in the working days - regardless of the hours worked on each day.

Calculation of the entitlement to holidays in the mini-job

Leave entitlement for minor employmentAlso with a small employment (mini job) each worker is entitled to paid rest vacation. This is calculated from the general days of leave that each employee is entitled to according to § 3 Federal Holiday Act - BUrlG.

This 1960s law is based on a six-day work week, with at least 24 working days full-time leave. The original intention of the legislature was aimed at four weeks annual leave.

The statutory annual leave is therefore at least 4 weeks per year = 24 working days for a six-day week (Monday-Saturday).
Since the federal holiday law generally starts from 6 working days (Monday to Saturday), the holiday must be converted accordingly to the agreed working days. It does not matter how many hours the employee spends on working days, but how many working days per week he works.

For full-time employees, the five-day work week applies; for mini-jobs, the special feature is that the full working day is calculated on each day on which the employee appears in the company. It is theoretically enough for an hour. For the calculation of the holiday entitlement, the working days per week are now multiplied by 24 and then divided by six (original working days per week).

sample calculation

 An employee who works only 5 days a week is entitled to 20 days' leave, even if he only works 12 hours a week in total. On the other hand, if the employee spends these 12 hours on only 3 working days, then he is not entitled to 20 but only 12 days off. This is calculated as follows: (3 working days per week x 24: 6)

If the employer grants workers full-time higher leave entitlements, then marginal workers (mini-jobbers) may not be disadvantaged without a substantive reason, on the basis of the principle of equal treatment. You then also have a correspondingly higher holiday entitlement.

This results in the holiday entitlement in working days.

In practice, the following values ​​would result:

• one working day per week: 1 x 24: 6 = 4 days off
• two working days per week: 2 x 24: 6 = 8 days off
• three working days per week: 3 x 24: 6 = 12 days off
• four working days per week: 4 x 24: 6 = 16 days off
• five working days per week: 5 x 24: 6 = 20 days off
• six working days per week: 6 x 24: 6 = 24 days off

Important note about minor employment
The resulting legal minimum entitlement to leave may not fall below, but can be increased according to § 13 BUrlG. It does not come as a surprise that the calculation is complex, for there have always been other working time models - for example, the "rolling week" of shift workers in factories and power plants with continuous machinery, a model with seven consecutive night shifts, seven late shifts, seven early shifts and five days free.

This is just one of many working time models that have existed for decades. The Federal Holiday Law therefore stated from the outset in § 11 conversion of vacation entitlements in the rule of three. In the course of this conversion, every full-time employee receives four working weeks per year with 160 monthly hours.

Holiday entitlement for new employees

New employees do not earn their full holiday entitlement until six months have passed. The day of taking up work counts, not the date of contract conclusion. During the probationary period you are entitled to one-twelfth of the annual leave per full month. For example, anyone who enters the employment relationship on July 1 of a year and wants to take a vacation after three months only has a proportionate holiday entitlement.

Petty Employment TipIf an employee is ill throughout the year, he is still entitled to his or her leave and may take it during the first three months of the following year. Also important: the rest leave of a year can be transferred to the following year, but must be taken usually until 31 March and otherwise threatened to expire - unless employer and employee agree on a transfer beyond March.

The holiday should serve the rest, it wants the law. That's why employers are not allowed to "buy" their employees for days or weeks, so they have to spend money instead of free time. An exception applies only if someone could not take his vacation, because the Arbeitsver
was terminated. In addition, a company can not simply break the holiday at will, so give here one, there four and another three days. What many do not know: Employees are entitled to contiguous leave, at least twelve working days at a time.

Proportional holiday pay 

Partial holiday pay for a mini job The proportion of holiday pay to be paid is calculated as well as the holiday time. For example, if a mini-jobber worked 9.5 hours a week, that would be 25% of full-time employment for 38 hours. If this employer pays holiday pay of 600 euros to his full-time employees, the mini-jobber would receive 25% of it = 150 euros. The same applies to Christmas bonus. However, caution should be exercised with regard to these special payments, as this could exceed the limit of 450 euros per month or 5,400 euros per year for a marginal employment - the status of the mini-jobber would then be eliminated. Should an employer provide his employees and thus also the mini-jobber and pay Christmas bonus, these are the full working hours for 450 euro earnings, which is under the new minimum wage law (since 01.01.2015) at just under 53 hours per month, not fully exploit.

Dealing with the vacation entitlements of Minijobbern

What sounds so obvious in the presentation is unfortunately not implemented everywhere in practice. This is the conclusion of a study by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) - the research institution of the Federal Employment Agency - from 2015. According to this, about two-thirds of the marginally employed in North Rhine-Westphalia have never received the legally guaranteed, paid leave , where the employer is a high complicity - because 41% of employees were always denied this holiday. The remainder, about one-fifth of all mini-jobbers, just did not care.

Continued pay in case of illness

The study also covered sick pay and the payment of holiday and Christmas bonuses, similar phenomena. Employers do not pay the statutory benefits and do not need to worry about sanctions because there is a lack of regulatory control and mini-jobbers, often out of ignorance, do not resist at all.