Vacation When Switching to Part-Time Work

When an employee transitions from full-time to part-time employment, an employer is not permitted to reduce the employee’s accrued vacation entitlement that was earned during the period of full-time employment. A provision in a collective bargaining agreement that reflected this earlier practice was declared invalid by the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

An employee working full-time five days a week switched to part-time employment with a four-day workweek in the middle of the year. According to his original employment contract, he was entitled to 30 days of vacation. Since he had not yet taken any vacation, he wanted 15 days for the first half of the year and 12 days for the second. However, the employer wanted to grant him only 24 days for the entire year. The employer based the reduction on a provision in the relevant collective bargaining agreement. According to that provision, the vacation entitlement changes accordingly if the workweek is structured differently than a 5-day week. The employee challenged the reduction through a lawsuit. The case went all the way to the Federal Labor Court. In the judges’ view, however, a reduction in the vacation days already accrued during full-time employment violates the prohibition against discrimination against part-time workers under the European Court of Justice. This was the case due to the retroactive reduction of vacation days.

Conclusion: If an employee switches to part-time employment during the year, they are entitled to the full vacation entitlement for the past months worked in full.