The full-time position entitles you to forty hours to twenty days statutory vacation. This means that you can take a break for at least four weeks a year. Do you work part time? Then you get vacation days pro rata. In addition, you may be entitled to extra days because this is provided for in your collective labor agreement or your employer can add extra days to it. “On average, this takes about four to seven days,” says Jock van der Velpen, director of laws and regulations at human resource services firm VismaRight.

If those legal and illegal days are over, but you still need a few days off in the fall, some employers offer the option to purchase additional vacation days. “This is possible if it is in your collective labor agreement,” van der Velpen explains. “The government has this option, for example. It often sees it as a possibility for employees who have an individual selection budget. The advantage is that it doesn’t deduct from your net pay and so it feels less. You don’t immediately see the cost of that in your bank account.

Because buying vacation days isn’t actually free. “It will cost you your hourly rate,” van der Velpen explains. You can find this on your salary slip. It’s simple math: hourly wage multiplied by the number of extra hours you want to take in.

There are a number of points to watch out for, says van der Velpen: Check your collective labor agreement if you want to buy days. For example, you may never withdraw more than agreed upon. In addition, you may never fall below the minimum wage. Depending on your salary level, there is a limit to the number of hours you can work. Plus: If you already have a supply of vacation days and want to save up for a longer trip, buying vacation days isn’t an option for every business owner. This is always done in consultation with the employer.

“It also varies depending on the collective labor agreement whether it has an expiration date,” says van der Velpen. “But often there is a fixed period, say, a year. If you don’t withdraw it in the meantime, it will be converted into money again.” And then the amount at which you bought it is calculated. Your employer is not the bank. So It is not possible to do this strategically and buy some vacation days before the hourly wage goes up and then sell them back for a higher amount.

There is also an important condition for the employer, says employment lawyer Gerard Bergois from BAASZ Advocaten. “He or she must make sure that all employees are treated equally. If you offer someone the opportunity to buy a few days, you must also offer this opportunity to others. You can only deviate from it for objective reasons. Suppose you have a shipping company. Then it might be It makes sense to have a different arrangement for captains than for sailors. As long as they are the same within the same job group. And it’s advised to put them on a list. “Then you won’t have any troubles about it being black and white.”

As an employee, if you’d rather not lose out on your monthly paycheck, but would still like to take a few days off over the next six months, there’s often something to sort out, says van der Velpen. ,,If you are in good consultation with your employer and still need a few days off at the end of the year, it is also often possible to take those days off and apply for them immediately when you return in January on overtime. “

According to van der Velpen, if you want to “save” days off for a longer trip or sabbatical, you’ll end up on other schemes. For example, unpaid leave. And that has more consequences than “only” eight times your hourly wages. ,, So you won’t accumulate pension and vacation money and it will cost you more money. Don’t record this for a few days either, here you’re usually talking about a period of about three months.

In addition to entitlement to a pension, taking unpaid leave also affects the amount of allowances and, for example, number of vacation days. Bergus explains that, unlike care leave and paternity leave, unpaid leave is not a right. “But the employer is under an obligation to seriously consider such a request. It is not something you can do as an employee, but a good employer can only refuse if there is a compelling business interest.

In any case, the days off should be taken in consultation, says Bergos. The starting point is that the leave is determined according to the employee’s desire. He submits a request and if there are no compelling reasons for not approving, this will be arranged. The employer must approve it. Many companies schedule holidays so that not everyone leaves at the same time.”

If there is a last-minute hitch, the employer can even cancel the leave. ‘He or she must then pay compensation if necessary. If the holiday has to be cancelled, the employer bears the costs.’ The employer is also obliged to make vacation days possible at another time.

Conversely, Pyrgos also regularly meets people who want to sell their days off because they can’t use them or need extra pocket money. “There are legal restrictions. The starting point is that employees must take time off. Holidays have the function of recovery. The employee needs time and rest to recharge. And vice versa: you should always have the opportunity to record it.”

“Selling because you need a larger income is permissible only in the case of non-statutory days. Statutory vacation days may only be paid at the end of the employment contract. For the same reason, these vacation days expire six months after the calendar year in which you received them. If there is no case Especially in which it was impossible to spend the days due to illness, for example, the statutory holidays for this year will end no later than July 1, 2024. Please note that if you still have days left after the summer holidays.