Annual holiday cycle

Annual holiday cycle

The annual holiday cycle (in Danish only) gives an overview of the holiday year at DTU.

It is recommended that administration of holidays and special days of holiday be undertaken by managers in the department or another relevant employee, who will continually keep up to date on which employees have not have taken their main holiday before September, their remaining holiday before 31 December and their five special days of holiday before 30 April.

It is important that the department’s management obtains an overview every September of which employees have not taken their holiday in the holiday year that has ended on 31 August and reacts to this by planning their taking of holiday before the expiry of the holiday entitlement period on 31 December of that year.

It is similarly important that the management obtains an overview each January of which employees have untaken special days of holiday which must have been taken before 30 April. The annual holiday cycle and these guidelines can be helpful in managing this administration.

DTU's policy on taking holiday

DTU gives high priority to employees taking their accrued holidays and special holidays, leading to several advantages for employees and DTU:

• Employees get a well-deserved break from an otherwise busy work schedule
• Better work-life balance
• Improved well-being in the workplace
• The department is better able to manage its finances when there are no expenses for holiday pay-outs

It is DTU's general policy that holidays and special holidays should not be paid out. It is therefore good management practice to plan holiday and special days of holiday well in advance. Such planning should take into account the employee's activities in relation to research, education and innovation, and the department's operation.

DTU's reluctance to pay out holidays and special holidays should also be seen in light of the fact that:

• Everyone at DTU has 25 days of holiday, five special holiday days and three days off paid by DTU (Constitution Day on 5 June, 24 December and 31 December)
• Each employee has a lot of flexibility in organising their working hours and taking holidays
• The reason for introducing the special days of holiday was so that they could contribute to work-life balance. The intention was never to pay out more in wages.