There’s a new phenomenon in HR-land: the buying and selling of leave. More and more companies are taking part, because they want to offer their employees more flexibility. The question many HR managers are asking themselves is: what are the rules for selling and buying leave days? In this blog, we offer some tips for possible arrangements to be made. The list isn’t complete, but you can use it as an example.
Buying leave days
You can set a maximum number of leave days your employees can buy each year. To be able to buy leave, they would have to hand in a written request. The request will only be granted when their leave balance is depleted and when it is not against the company’s interests.
Naturally, the purchased leave days have to be ‘paid for’ at some point. You can settle this, for instance, the month after the request was approved. Furthermore, you can agree with your employees that they cannot take these purchased leave days to the next year. The left-over balance of purchased leave days can be paid out on the 31st of December, at the same price.
Selling leave days
Do you give your employees the possibility to sell a maximum number of leave days? You should try working with a system of written requests. Document the fact that employees can only sell leave days which exceed the statutory minimum, and decide which leave balances may be sold: the current year’s leave days or the leave days from previous years that have not expired yet. It is important to realize that employees are not allowed to sell statutory leave days.
The settlement of sold leave days can take place in the month after the request was approved.
Points of interest: coordinate selling and buying!
Selling and buying leave days does not influence vacation pay or profit shares, but it could impact the right to certain benefits. Make sure your employees are aware of this. Moreover, make sure you are familiar with the prior arrangements in the contract, and be aware that the vacation arrangements only take effect when the employees council have agreed to them.
Whichever arrangements you make, it is crucial to have good leave registration. This prevents confusion about purchased and sold leave days!
The cloud-based leave registration system of Leavedays.com contains special modules which include selling and buying leave. Would you like to know more? Feel free to contact us.
