Employment law: Parents of school-age children are generally to be given social priority when applying for vacation.

Employment Court Cologne, 02.07.2014, Case No.: 14 Ga 65/14, 02.07.2014, Ref.: 14 Ga 65/14

Employees who, due to their school-age children, are forced to take their vacation during school holidays may face the recurring problem that the available vacation periods have already been allocated to other employees.

However, if an employee’s vacation request is repeatedly denied by the employer, the employee can have this decision reviewed in court.

All statutory vacation entitlements are regulated in the Federal Vacation Act (BUrlG). Federal Holiday Act (BurlG) regulated.

With regard to the timing of vacations, Section 7 (1) BUrlG stipulates that when determining the timing of vacation, the employee’s vacation preferences must be taken into account unless urgent operational reasons or the vacation requests of other employees, which deserve priority for social reasons, stand in the way.

employees who deserve priority from a social point of view.

Thus, if it becomes evident to the employee that the employer has given priority to the vacation wishes of other employees who should not be given priority based on social criteria, the affected employee can have the employer’s vacation decision reviewed by the competent labor court, for example, by way of an injunction.

In the case mentioned above, the employee’s vacation request had been rejected several times, so the employee sued the employer in the Employment Court Cologne by way of an interim injunction for the approval of the vacation.

Facts of the Court Case

Employee with children submits vacation requests for statutory school holidays

The plaintiff employee submitted various vacation requests for the summer and winter holidays to the defendant employer.

All of these vacation periods fell within the statutory school holidays, as the plaintiff was the father of school-age children.

Employer informs employee that vacation slots are already filled

Although the defendant was aware of this, he denied all of the plaintiff’s vacation requests with the simple statement that the available vacation slots had already been allocated in consultation with the works council.

The defendant neither specified which employees were involved nor clarified why these employees were to be given priority for social reasons.

Employment Court Cologne Ruling:

The court found the employer’s rejection to be insufficient

The Employment Court Cologne sided with the plaintiff and approved the plaintiff’s vacation.

In the court’s opinion, the defendant’s general assertion that the employees given priority were „health-impaired“ employees or employees with school-age children who had not received vacation during the summer holidays the previous year was not sufficient.

Employees with children should be given priority when allocating vacation

The defendant should have instead specified which employees had already applied for and been granted vacation for which specific period and why these employees deserved priority over the plaintiff from a social perspective.

Source: Employment Court Cologne

Important Note: The content of this article has been prepared to the best of our knowledge and belief. However, due to the complexity and constant evolution of the subject matter, we must exclude liability and warranty. Important Notice: The content of this article has been created to the best of our knowledge and understanding. However, due to the complexity and constant changes in the subject matter, we must exclude any liability and warranty.

If you need legal advice, feel free to call us at 0221 – 80187670 or email us at info@mth-partner.de.

Lawyers in Cologne advise and represent you in labour law.

 

One Response

  1. Employees with school-age children are given priority in holiday planning.
    Hello, my question:
    When is a child a child for the purposes of holiday planning? Does it have to be one of my own (i.e. legally verifiably adopted), a child noted on the income tax card, or can it be a child of my partner or girlfriend?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *