Vacation and leave

OR Art. 329a entitlement, pro-rating, carry-over, and the other statutory absences.

The statutory minimum (OR Art. 329a)

Employee	Minimum annual vacation
Aged 20 and over	4 weeks
Under 20 years of age	5 weeks

These are minima. Contracts and collective agreements routinely grant more, and public-sector and school employers often grant considerably more. The entitlement is configured per employment period, so the contractual figure is what the balance uses.

The higher entitlement is age-based, so it steps down at some point during a young employee’s employment. The platform does not derive it from a birth date — it is configured on the employment period, so review it when an employee crosses the threshold.

Pro-rating

Entitlement is pro-rated on two axes:

1. Pensum — a 60% employee earns 60% of the days, expressed in their own working days.
2. Period — someone employed from 1 April earns nine twelfths of the annual entitlement.

Both follow the employment periods, so a Pensum change mid-year produces the correct blended entitlement without a manual calculation.

The balance

entitlement (pro-rated)
  + carry-over from the previous year
  − taken
  − approved future absence
  = remaining

Carry-over rules are configured per installation. Swiss practice varies from “use it or lose it by 31 March” to unlimited accrual; both are supported.

Vacation must be taken, not paid

The employer decides when vacation is taken, having regard to the employee’s wishes, and it is intended to be taken as rest. Paying it out instead of granting it is generally not permitted during ongoing employment.

The exception is the end of employment, where an untaken balance is settled in the final payroll run — and an overtaken balance is recovered. See Offboarding.

Reduction for long absence

Extended absence can reduce the vacation entitlement, with the rules depending on the cause — illness, accident, military service, maternity — and on how long the absence ran.

The platform records absences by type and duration but does not automatically reduce vacation entitlement for long absences. That determination depends on the cause and on contractual terms, and it stays a deliberate HR decision recorded on the employment period.

Other statutory absence

Absence	Recorded as
Illness	SICK — see Sick pay
Accident	ACCIDENT — separate insurance and Lohnart
Care of a sick child	CHILD_SICK
Maternity, paternity, adoption and care leave	ABSENT with the appropriate category
Military and civil service	ABSENT
Compassionate leave	ABSENT

The distinction between types is not bookkeeping: they carry different pay treatment, different insurance, and different payroll items. Recording an accident as illness produces a wrong declaration.

Public holidays are not vacation

A public holiday falling in a vacation period does not consume entitlement. Because holidays are maintained per canton, the deduction is correct for the employee’s Standort without anyone counting by hand.

Public and school holidays

Cantonal calendars, computed Easter-relative dates, and school terms.