How many vacation days are your employees entitled to in 2024?

Belgian entitlement to vacation days for employees depends on a number of factors, such as the periods worked during the prior year, full-time vs. part-time employment, whether there has recently been a switch in the applicable social security scheme, etc.

Given the many different factors which might impact the number of legal vacation days to which employees are entitled, we made a short overview below where we explain both the basic principles on the calculation of the legal vacation entitlement and the more special cases.
 

1. Basic principles on the entitlement for legal vacation days

The basic principle is that in the vacation year (year X) employees who worked full-time for a complete vacation service year (year X-1) are entitled to 4 weeks of vacation, i.e. 20 vacation days in case the employee worked full-time in a 5-day work week and 24 legal vacation days in a 6-day work week. The statutory vacation entitlement, in principle, cannot exceed 4 weeks.

The difficulty lies in the vacation entitlement in cases where there was no (or no full) vacation service year, where there is a change from full-time to part-time (or vice versa), etc.

In this alert, we will focus mainly on white collar workers, as the employer will be responsible for the determination of the number of vacation days of the employee. For blue collar workers, the number of statutory vacation days to which an employee is entitled can be consulted via the “vacation account”, an on-line service provided by the authorities to track vacation data for blue collar employees, who receive their vacation pay from a vacation fund.
 

2. Incomplete vacation service year

In the event an employee has an incomplete vacation service year, the corresponding entitlement to statutory vacation days during the vacation year will also be pro-rated.

An employee working in a 6-day work schedule will be entitled to two statutory vacation days per month of employment. For an employee working in a 5-day work schedule, the calculation is identical, but 1 vacation day is deducted for every sixth accrued vacation day (i.e. every third month, marked rows in the below table).

It’s important to note that there are also a number of assimilated periods, which are taken into account as working days for the purpose of determining the entitlement to vacation days in the next calendar year. For example (non-exhaustive list):

• Absence due to illness or work accident
• Vacation days for which single vacation pay was paid
• Maternity, paternity and adoptive leave
• Prophylactic leave
• …
   

3. Switch in work regime (Full-time to part-time or vice versa)

For employees switching from one work regime to the next, full-time to part-time or vice versa, the following needs to be taken into account:

• For switch from full-time to part-time employment: the total entitlement to vacation days cannot exceed 4 weeks of vacation in the new work regime. As such, the entitlement to vacation days is pro-rated based on the employment percentage in the new regime.
• For switch from part-time to full-time employment: a calculation of the number of vacation days using the same method as for full time workers (see above in section 2) is made, but taking into account the part-time employment factor compared to full-time work.

For employees switching from full-time to part-time work, we also remind you that several December recalculations may be required! See our previous alert about this topic.
 

4. What if…

A. Your employee was not previously subject to the Belgian social security scheme (for employees)?

Self-employed workers, employees who have worked abroad and were subject to foreign social security, students starting their first job after graduation, etc. have no work history in a vacation service year based on which statutory vacation days have been accrued for the vacation year.

As a result, they will not be entitled to statutory vacation days during the first year of their employment as employees subject to Belgian social security.

For these situations, there are alternatives, both based on legislation and purely on practice:

• The employer can grant extra-legal vacation days (number can be freely determined);
• The employee can use the alternative systems, such as youth vacation of European vacation, under certain conditions.

B. You hired a new employee who has pre-existing vacation entitlements based on prior employment?

For new hires with prior employment periods with other employers, the vacation entitlements accrued during the vacation service year with these other employers will also need to be taken into account.

These entitlements are included in the vacation attestation which each employee should receive when leaving an employer. Based on this attestation, the total vacation rights for the vacation year can be determined.

5. Conclusion

While the basic principles for full-time employees who worked in your company throughout the previous year are straightforward, changes to employments, employment patterns, etc. can lead to unexpectedly complex calculations. These will need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

EY remains available to assist with a calculation of the statutory vacation entitlements of your employees and any other questions in that respect. In case of any questions with regard to your specific company or a specific employee, please do not hesitate to reach out to us: payrolloperate@be.ey.com, via your trusted EY advisor, or via our contact form.

Our payroll professionals can help you optimize the (global) payroll and reduce compliance risks so you meet all payroll requirements today and in the future. EY Payroll Operate answers a clear demand in the market: a global payroll solution that provides a single framework that can be scaled by you as your business needs evolve. EY professionals operate client payrolls as a managed service from data collection, preparation, execution right up to statutory reporting, payment preparation and employee communication.