Postponing a holiday due to incapacity for work
In accordance with the Annual Holidays Act, incapacity for work due to childbirth, illness or accident is considered acceptable grounds for postponing a holiday. The employee also has the right to postpone their holiday if, at the beginning of their holiday or a part thereof, they are informed that they are due to undergo medical treatment or other similar treatment that results in incapacity for work, for example, surgery, during their holiday.
The employee does not have the right to postpone their holiday if the incapacity for work has been caused intentionally or through gross negligence.
Postponing a holiday
The employer must provide instructions on how employees report their incapacity for work during their holiday and how to request the postponement of a holiday.
If the employee’s incapacity for work begins before the holiday, the holiday must be postponed at the employee’s request. The employee’s right to postponement only applies to the days of incapacity for work that fall within the planned holiday.
If the incapacity for work begins during a holiday, the right to postponement is, in principle, granted only after a waiting period. The length of the waiting period depends on how many days of holiday the employee has accrued. However, the maximum length of the waiting period is five or six days of holiday, depending on whether five or six days of holiday are spent in a week according to the collective agreement. A period of incapacity for work that is part of a waiting period may fall within a summer holiday or winter holiday or individual days of holiday.
There is no waiting period if the employee has accrued only four weeks of holiday or less during the holiday credit year. The employer is responsible for ensuring that each holiday credit year, the employee has had the right to four annual weeks of holiday that do not include any days of incapacity for work.
In some collective agreements (in Finnish), there is no waiting period.
Note that holidays are not postponed automatically in any case, but only at the employee’s request. The postponement request must be presented without delay after the beginning of incapacity and, at the employer’s request, a reliable account of incapacity must be presented. It is considered a good practice to report an illness that falls within a holiday to the employer even if the waiting period has not been completed yet.
Timing of a postponed holiday
Incapacity for work does not automatically mean that the originally planned holiday is extended by the number of days of incapacity. In principle, the holiday ends in accordance with the original notification. However, the parties can agree on extending the holiday in this manner.
In principle, a postponed summer holiday must be granted during the same summer holiday season by 30 September and a postponed winter holiday must be granted by 30 April, before the beginning of the next summer holiday season. If it is not possible to grant a holiday in these time frames, the holiday must be granted during the holiday season of the calendar year following the original holiday season and, at the latest, by the end of this calendar year.
A holiday postponed due to incapacity for work in summer 2024 should be granted by 30 September 2024 or, if not possible, during the next summer holiday season or, at the latest, by 31 December 2025.
The employer must state the dates of the postponed holiday two weeks before the beginning of the holiday or, if this is not possible, at least one week before the beginning of the holiday.
If you have any questions about annual holidays, check the provisions of the Annual Holidays Act and the collective agreement applied at your workplace, discuss the matter with the union representative of your workplace or, if necessary, contact the Tehy e-services.