Millions of employees cheer about this hammer judgement: Holiday days can soon no longer expire automatically, but instead can accumulate for years.
The extent to which you benefit from this depends on the industry in which you work. Depending on the industry, the number of annual vacation days differs by up to four and a half days.
Anyone who works in the capital goods industry can look forward to 30.7 vacation days. Employees in the catering and hotel industry, on the other hand, only have an average of 26.2 days off a year.
The differences between the federal states are also enormous. At the top: Bayern. On average, they have the second most vacation days after Baden-Württemberg (28.3), but benefit from the most public holidays of all countries (13), so they have the most days off overall (41.3).
Employees in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (37.5) and Schleswig-Holstein (37.8) have the fewest days off (vacation days plus public holidays).
► The holiday differences at a glance.
Differences by industry
| industry | holidays |
|---|---|
| capital goods | 30,7 |
| banking | 29,5 |
| chemistry and process engineering | 29,5 |
| pharmacy | 29,3 |
| aviation | 29,1 |
| craft | 27,8 |
| Social facilities | 27,8 |
| Retail, clothing, textile | 27,8 |
| Call center | 26,3 |
| hotels and restaurants | 26,2 |
Differences by state
| Federal State | holidays | Legal holidays | In total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bayern | 28,3 | 13 | 41,3 |
| Baden-Wuerttemberg | 28,8 | 12 | 40,8 |
| Saarland | 28,2 | 12 | 40,2 |
| Brandenburg | 27,6 | 12 | 39,6 |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 28,5 | 11 | 39,5 |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 28,1 | 11 | 39,1 |
| Thuringia | 28 | 11 | 39 |
| Saxony-Anhalt | 27,7 | 11 | 38,7 |
| Berlin | 27,5 | 11 | 38,5 |
| Hesse | 28,5 | 10 | 38,4 |
| Saxony | 27,4 | 11 | 38,4 |
| Hamburg | 28,4 | 10 | 38,4 |
| Bremen | 28,4 | 10 | 38,4 |
| Lower Saxony | 28,1 | 10 | 38,1 |
| Schleswig-Holstein | 27,8 | 10 | 37,8 |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | 27,5 | 10 | 37,5 |
In a historic judgment, the Federal Labor Court (BAG) ruled on Monday: holiday entitlements must not automatically become statute-barred after three years. The court thus follows the case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
Remarkable: According to labor law expert Prof. Michael Fuhlrott, the rule even applies retrospectively. “This allows employees to assert holiday entitlements from the last few decades – even against their ex-employer.” Allegedly statute-barred vacation must then be granted or paid out.
Exception: The boss can prove that he informed his employees that the vacation days were going to expire and asked them to take their vacation.
If he looks on without doing anything, employees can still claim their vacation or remaining vacation years later. A three-year limitation period begins “only at the end of the calendar year in which the employer instructs the employee about his specific vacation entitlement and the expiration periods and the employee still has not taken the vacation of his own free will,” explained the BAG.