Illness and holidays

A holiday starts at the beginning of normal working hours on the first day of leave. For example, if you go on leave on Friday after working hours, the holiday only commences at the start of working hours on Monday.

If you fall ill before your holiday starts, or you fall ill during your holiday, please note that special rules apply. There are different rules depending on whether you fall ill before or during your planned holiday.

If you fall ill before the start of your holiday

If you fall ill before the start of your holiday, this is a ‘holiday obstacle’, and you can therefore choose not to start your planned holiday. Remember to call in sick if you fall ill before your holiday starts, as you would normally do if you were going to work.

Once you have recovered, before the end of your planned holiday, you have the option to take the remainder of your holiday. You need to arrange this further with your manager. Please note that only the remainder of your planned holiday is available for you to take. That is, you do not have the right to extend your planned holiday as a result of you reporting fit to work. If you want to take more holiday, this must be arranged with your manager.

If you fall ill before the start of special days of holiday

If you fall ill before your planned special days of holiday, do not take the holiday, but instead arrange with your manager another time during the holiday year when you can take the special days of holiday.

If you are ill just before the end of the holiday year (30 April), you must discuss the special days of holiday being transferred to the subsequent holiday year with your manager.

If you fall ill during your holiday

If you are unfortunate enough to fall ill during your holiday, you are entitled to replacement holiday. There are a number of conditions that must be met for you to be entitled to replacement holiday, which you can read more about below.

There is a qualifying period associated with replacement holiday. This means that you are only entitled to replacement holiday after five sick days (qualifying period) in the holiday year if you have been employed throughout the holiday year (from 1 September to 31 August). The qualifying period is counted from the first day you call in sick. Therefore, it is important to call in sick as you would usually do for work. Remember to state that your holiday has begun.

If you have not been employed for the entire holiday year, the qualifying period will be calculated proportionally.

To be eligible for replacement holiday, you must obtain a doctor’s note documenting that you are ill. You must pay any costs for this documentation yourself.   If the illness occurs abroad, you can document this with a sick note from, for example, the foreign doctor, hospital records etc. If you fall ill in Denmark, you can obtain a medical certificate from your doctor. The documentation may also be hospital admission papers.

Please note that the medical record must document your illness from the first day of sickness. If the doctor’s note/record only covers a later starting point, the qualifying period for replacement holiday will only be from this date.

Taking replacement holiday

If you recover during the holiday, you can either take the rest of your holiday or resume work, as agreed with your manager. The replacement holiday you are entitled to due to illness cannot usually be taken as an extension of the originally planned holiday, but rather later in the holiday year, or in the following holiday year.

If you fall ill during special days of holiday

If you fall ill during special days of holiday, these are considered to have been taken and are therefore not replaced.

Special days of holiday do not count towards the calculation of the qualifying period.