Hi,

I have a question:

I have slightly more than the minimum 20 days of holidays per annum.

I did not take much so far and in my employee handbuch, there is something written like if I have more than 5 days remaining at the end of the year its lost (maybe its 0 actually I dont remember).

Does this really apply ?
I have a swiss colleague who told me that the company can not take my days off, that it is illegal.
Is that true ?
Even if it is true, have you ever witnessed the opposite ? Because I dont really want to go for long holidays in winter and I do not need this kind of fight with management...

Thanks

if it is in the handbook and you have signed off on it, then yes, they can do it. it may be possible to carry some days over for a certain amount of time into the next year - at my place of work, they let us request it until the end of March but it has to be agreed upon before the end of the year. My advice - take your holidays and enjoy life!

We have similar policy at work, that holiday balances do not carry over. This is common.

Our policy is a little flexible in a sense that, our busiest times means holiday can not be taken anyway, yet we need to take it before the end of the holiday year which runs to end of Sept for some bizarre reason. I have 10 days left myself, but cant take any until post 15 October, so they have to carry over. They cant have it both ways.

If you lose the days, you should at least be paid them.

Talk to your manager, HR, person

same at my company - no carry over to the next year..
If you only have just few days - they will let you use them next year, subject to management approval.
As far as I know - the not used days are not supposed to be $$ compensated.
I was also told that it is a law, however I have seen few exceptions already.
Actually I have never had this problem - vacation days were always too few.

A holiday in the sun in winter is just great... in fact November is the most horrible month in Switzerland, and I would love to escape it every year! Enjoy. Flights are cheap then, and loads of cheap offers - and hopefully no kids doing the lambada around the pool!