The aim of annual paid leave is to ensure the protection of the safety and health of workers.

In principle, leave is rest in exchange for work provided by the employee. However, does an employee in short-time working (chômage partiel) continue to accumulate days of leave? In certain cases of absence, the right to leave continues to exist and in other cases it does not. The current legislation does not provide more precision on this point. However, the Labor Inspectorate (Inspection du Travail et des Mines or ʺITMʺ) is of the opinion that salaried employees in the short-time working regime have the right to accumulate statutory leave at the rate of 2,16 days per month.

If the pandemic disrupted established plans and a request for leave was granted by an employer, the employee may not unilaterally withhdraw the request for leave. The leave must thus be taken at the time requested. An order of 25 October 2018 (Court of Apeals 25 October 2018 n° 44386), holds that this principle goes both ways, thus neither the employee nor the employer may unilaterally backtrack on a granted request for leave.

However, it is important to remember that in light of Article L 233-10 of the Luxembourg Labour Code, an employer may not unilaterally impose leave days on an employee. The request for leave must come from the employee and the employer may only oppose it if there are valid reasons, such as the needs of the employer’s service or the justified request of another employee.

Additional resource: FAQs on requesting short-time working (chômage partiel) from Luxembourg’s employment development agency (Agence pour le développement de l’emploi or ʺADEMʺ).

For more information or assistance regarding the right to statutory annual leave, contact our Employment and Social Security Law team at +352 262 562-1 or send us an email at contact@dsm.legal.