Many Dutch employees did not take a week off in the early spring this year. Figures from four hour registration companies show that staff took 15 to 50 percent fewer vacation hours in the first four months of the year than before the corona crisis.
Employees have waited to take vacation because of the corona crisis. As a result, the available holiday hours accumulated and this leads to conflicts in the catering industry, for example. Employers are turning down some requests for leave this summer because people are badly needed when money can be made again.
“With the staff shortages that exist now, companies cannot miss a lot of people at the same time this summer. You also have to look at the special situation in which we all lived in the past year”, says Robèr Willemsen of Koninklijke Horeca Nederland. He refers to the period of more than six months in which the catering industry was closed due to the corona restrictions.
Understanding for employer
Willemsen believes that someone whose vacation is rejected also thinks about the position of the employer. “In recent months, he has done everything to keep people employed, has continued to pay part of the salary with his own money. As an employee, understand the employer and see whether you can get out together.”
Trade union FNV believes that employers should take holiday wishes into account. “It is not the case that employees in the hospitality industry have been sitting lazily on the couch in recent months,” says Edwin Vlek of FNV Horeca. “For example, they had to help with maintenance or with delivery services. Moreover, not working in a lockdown is very different from a holiday where you can really relax.”
Rights of employees
According to Pascal Besselink, employment lawyer at DAS, the employee is the leader in vacation requests. “The request is on request and in accordance with the wishes of the employee. A vacation request may only be rejected for serious reasons, for example if absence leads to major organizational problems or if production is endangered.” The bar is set high. “In a normal situation it is not enough for a company to say that hands are needed.”
Besselink notices that a relatively large number of employees have legal vacation hours left over from last year. They are in danger of expiring on 1 July, but an employer cannot just cancel them. “The employer is obliged to inform employees in good time that they still have to take those hours. This must be in writing. And employees must also be given the opportunity to actually take those hours before 1 July.”
Voluntary submission
Hospitality entrepreneur Robèr Willemsen has made agreements with the staff in his own catering businesses about the surrender of vacation days. “During the period that we were closed, we agreed that they would not accrue vacation days. As a result, there is now no reservoir of vacation days.”
“There are some who have said, I cannot suffer that. Then of course we will not. But the vast majority have said they want to make a sacrifice in these difficult times.”
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