Impact of lay-offs on annual leave

Last updated 6.10.2023

Accrual of leave

Full-time lay-offs

In accordance with the Annual Holidays Act (Vuosilomalaki, 162/2005), employees accrue days of holiday for the first 30 days of the lay-off, i.e. 30 working days at a time are counted as days that accrue annual leave during the lay-off. When calculating the 30-day period, only those days that would have been the employee’s working days without the lay-off are taken into account. If the lay-off lasts more than 30 working days at a time, annual leave will no longer be accrued for the excess lay-off period.

If an employee is laid off for several periods and they return to work between the periods, the calculation of the 30-day period starts again at the beginning of each separate lay-off period.

Partial lay-offs

If the lay-off is implemented by shortening the working weeks or by means of another comparable working time arrangement, periods of a maximum of six months at a time are counted as the equivalent of days at work.

A new six-month period begins if the employee works a full working week between the lay-off periods. If the lay-off lasts continuously for more than six months, holiday is accrued in accordance with the Annual Holidays Act (14 days or 35 hours). Lay-off days are not included in the accrual of leave specified in the Annual Holidays Act.

Annual leave during a lay-off

If an employee takes annual leave during a lay-off, they are entitled to holiday pay. The holiday pay corresponds to the employee’s average salary during the period in question.

If the holiday entitlement is based on full-time work, the employee is not entitled to earnings-related daily allowance during the annual leave. If the holiday entitlement is based on part-time work, the unemployment fund will take into account the amount of holiday pay to be paid to the employee in the adjusted daily allowance. You can read more about the impact of annual leave on the daily allowance on the unemployment fund website.