Holiday during parental leave: what you are entitled to and what you are not

Holiday during parental leave: the rules at a glance

Situation	Consequence for your holiday	Legal basis
Parental leave, employer does not declare a reduction	full annual holiday, including for the parental leave	Sec. 17 (1) BEEG, BAG 9 AZR 362/18
Parental leave, employer declares the reduction	minus 1/12 per full calendar month of parental leave	Sec. 17 (1) sentence 1 BEEG
Parental leave begins or ends in the middle of a month	that month is not reduced	Sec. 17 (1) sentence 1 BEEG ("full calendar month")
Part-time work during parental leave for your own employer	no reduction	Sec. 17 (1) sentence 2 BEEG
Part-time work during parental leave for another employer	reduction by your previous employer possible	Sec. 17 (1) sentence 2 BEEG, by reverse inference
Remaining holiday from before parental leave	carried over, can be taken in the current or next holiday year after your return	Sec. 17 (2) BEEG
more holiday taken before parental leave than you were entitled to	deduction from holiday after parental leave possible	Sec. 17 (4) BEEG
Maternity protection (protective periods, prohibitions on employment)	no reduction, the remainder is preserved	Sec. 24 MuSchG
Employment relationship ends during or after parental leave	outstanding holiday is paid in lieu, no further reduction	Sec. 17 (3) BEEG, Sec. 7 (4) BUrlG

Does holiday arise during parental leave at all?

Yes. During parental leave, your employment relationship is suspended, but it continues to exist. Your holiday entitlement therefore arises as usual at the start of each calendar year once the waiting period of six months has been completed (Sec. 4 BUrlG). The Federal Labour Court (BAG) has confirmed that statutory holiday also exists for the period of parental leave and is only reduced by a reduction by the employer (BAG, judgment of 19 March 2019, 9 AZR 362/18).

The statutory minimum holiday is 24 working days (Werktage) a year (Sec. 3 (1) BUrlG). Because Saturday is also a working day (Sec. 3 (2) BUrlG), with a five-day week this corresponds to 20 workdays. Many employment contracts and collective agreements provide for more. Without a reduction, three years of parental leave with 30 days of holiday therefore bring up to 90 days of holiday.

The reduction is a right of the employer, not an obligation. If it does not exercise it, the full holiday remains.

When may the employer reduce holiday during parental leave?

Sec. 17 (1) sentence 1 BEEG allows the employer to reduce the annual leave by one twelfth for each full calendar month of parental leave.

Only full calendar months count

What matters is the calendar month from the 1st to the last day, not the month of your child's life. If only part of a month falls within parental leave, no reduction may be made for that month. With 30 days of holiday, this is 2.5 days per full month; with 24 days of holiday, 2 days.

The reduction must be declared

The reduction does not happen automatically. The employer must make a declaration that reaches you. It can be express or implied. It is enough, for example, if, departing from your holiday request, it grants you only the reduced holiday or if it is otherwise recognisable to you that it wants to reduce it (BAG, 9 AZR 362/18, para. 31). A holiday balance of "0 days" on your payslip is usually not enough as a reduction without further indications, because information on a payslip is in principle only a statement of knowledge (Wissenserklärung) (BAG, 9 AZR 495/17, para. 38).

When the employer can reduce

• At the earliest once you have requested parental leave. A reduction "in advance" for some future parental leave is not possible (BAG, judgment of 19 March 2019, 9 AZR 495/17). Whether a general clause in the employment contract changes this must be examined in the individual case.
• During and after parental leave, as long as the employment relationship exists, so also after your return.
• No longer after the end of the employment relationship. The holiday has then turned into a monetary claim to payment in lieu (Urlaubsabgeltung), and this cannot be reduced under Sec. 17 BEEG (BAG, judgment of 16 April 2024, 9 AZR 165/23).

Additional holiday too, but without rounding

The reduction covers not only the statutory minimum holiday but also additional contractual holiday, unless the contract provides otherwise (BAG, 9 AZR 362/18). Half days are not rounded up or down. The rounding rule of Sec. 5 (2) BUrlG only applies to partial holiday on joining or leaving, not to the reduction for parental leave (BAG, 9 AZR 362/18, para. 39). If 2.5 days remain, you are entitled to 2.5 days. Collective agreements may contain their own rules on holiday during a suspended employment relationship.

Calculating holiday during parental leave: three examples

All examples assume 30 days of holiday with a five-day week and that the employer has validly declared the reduction. Without a declaration of reduction, the full holiday remains in each case.

Example 1: father, two months from the birth. The child is born on Friday, 15 May 2026. The father takes parental leave from 15 May to 14 July 2026. Only June falls completely within the parental leave. The employer may reduce by one twelfth, i.e. by 2.5 days. For 2026, 27.5 days of holiday remain.

Example 2: father, two months from the start of the month. The same father instead takes parental leave from 1 June to 31 July 2026. Now June and July are full calendar months. The reduction amounts to two twelfths, i.e. 5 days. 25 days of holiday remain.

Example 3: mother with maternity protection and two years of parental leave. From January to March 2026, the mother has already taken 8 days of holiday. The protective period before the birth runs from 3 April 2026, the child is born on 15 May 2026, and the protective period after the birth ends on 10 July 2026 (Sec. 3 (1) and (2) MuSchG). From 11 July 2026, she takes parental leave until 14 May 2028 and returns on Monday, 15 May 2028.

Year	full calendar months of parental leave	Reduction	Holiday after reduction	Balance on return
2026	5 (August to December)	12.5 days	17.5 days	17.5 minus 8 taken = 9.5 days of remaining holiday
2027	12	30 days	0 days	0 days
2028	4 (January to April)	10 days	20 days	20 days

The months April to July 2026 are not reduced: maternity protection is not parental leave, and July is not a full month of parental leave because it begins on 11 July. After her return, the mother has 9.5 days of remaining holiday from 2026 and 20 days for 2028, 29.5 days in total. If the employer does not declare a reduction, it would be 22 days from 2026, 30 from 2027 and 30 from 2028.

Calendar months instead of months of life: the planning tip

Examples 1 and 2 show the point that circulates online as the "parental leave holiday trick": how much may be reduced depends only on how many full calendar months fall within your parental leave. If you arrange parental leave so that it begins on the 2nd of a month or ends on the penultimate day, you prevent the reduction for that month. This is not a trick but the wording of Sec. 17 (1) BEEG.

Bear two things in mind. First, parental allowance (Elterngeld) is calculated by months of the child's life, not by calendar months; a day of work or holiday in a parental allowance month may affect the parental allowance. Second, for parental leave up to the third birthday, you must request it in text form no later than seven weeks before it begins and specify the periods within two years for which you are taking it (Sec. 16 (1) sentences 1 and 2 BEEG). So the dates should be fixed beforehand.

Holiday before parental leave: what happens to remaining holiday?

If you did not take your holiday, or did not take all of it, before parental leave began, the employer must grant you the remainder after parental leave in the current or the following holiday year (Sec. 17 (2) BEEG). You do not need to apply for a carry-over. If, for example, you return in May 2028, you can still take the carried-over remaining holiday until the end of 2029.

If the first parental leave is directly followed by another, for example for a second child, or if maternity protection periods and periods of parental leave follow each other seamlessly, the remaining holiday moves on until after the end of the last parental leave (BAG, 9 AZR 165/23).

Taken too much holiday in advance? If, before parental leave, you received more holiday than you are entitled to after the reduction, the employer may reduce your holiday after parental leave by the days granted in excess (Sec. 17 (4) BEEG). You do not have to pay anything back.

Holiday between maternity protection and parental leave. After the protective period, mothers can first take holiday and then go on parental leave. The law expressly provides for this case: the period of holiday is then counted, like the protective period, towards the two-year period that you must specify when requesting parental leave (Sec. 16 (1) sentence 5 BEEG). You agree the timing of the holiday with your employer as usual (Sec. 7 (1) BUrlG).

Does holiday lapse during parental leave?

No. The general rule under which holiday lapses at the end of the year or at the latest on 31 March of the following year (Sec. 7 (3) BUrlG) does not apply during parental leave. Sec. 17 BEEG takes precedence as a special rule (BAG, 9 AZR 495/17; BAG, 9 AZR 165/23). Holiday that is still "in limbo" because of the possibility of a reduction does not lapse during parental leave either.

After your return, the following applies:

• Remaining holiday from before parental leave: can be taken in the current or the next holiday year (Sec. 17 (2) BEEG). Whether it lapses after that is governed by the general rules. According to case law, holiday in principle only lapses if the employer has informed you in good time of the impending lapse and asked you to take it.
• Unreduced holiday from parental leave: whether and when it is time-limited after your return was expressly left open by the Federal Labour Court (BAG, 9 AZR 495/17, para. 14). So plan it with your employer early on.

Holiday cannot become time-barred during maternity protection and parental leave either, because you cannot claim it at all during this time (BAG, 9 AZR 165/23, para. 33).

Part-time work during parental leave: no reduction, but conversion

During parental leave, you may work up to 32 hours a week on average over the month (Sec. 15 (4) sentence 1 BEEG). For your holiday, it depends on who you work for:

• Part-time work for your own employer: a reduction under Sec. 17 (1) BEEG is excluded. You have holiday like any other part-time employee.
• Part-time work for another employer: for this, you need your employer's consent (Sec. 15 (4) sentence 3 BEEG). Your previous employer may then reduce your holiday; with the new employer, you acquire your own holiday.

If you work part-time on fewer days per week, your holiday is converted to the new workdays: with three workdays, 30 days at five workdays become 18 days (30 x 3 / 5). However, holiday that you acquired while still working full-time must not be reduced retrospectively by the switch to part-time. The Federal Labour Court declared a collective agreement rule invalid insofar as it reduced holiday days acquired in full-time work (BAG, judgment of 10 February 2015, 9 AZR 53/14 (F)); this also applies to remaining holiday after parental leave (BAG, 9 AZR 495/17, para. 40).

Holiday entitlement during maternity protection

For holiday purposes, periods of absence due to a prohibition on employment (Beschäftigungsverbot) count as periods of employment (Sec. 24 sentence 1 MuSchG). This applies to the protective periods of six weeks before and, as a rule, eight weeks after the birth (Sec. 3 MuSchG) and to other prohibitions on employment. The employer may not reduce anything for this period, unlike for parental leave.

If you did not receive all your holiday before the prohibition on employment began, you can take the remainder after it ends in the current or the following holiday year (Sec. 24 sentence 2 MuSchG). If parental leave follows, this remainder moves with you into the period after parental leave (BAG, 9 AZR 165/23). If you are pregnant and have questions about protection against dismissal, you will find them in the guide Pregnant during probation.

Dismissal during or after parental leave: holiday is paid out

If the employment relationship ends during parental leave or is not continued after parental leave, the employer must pay in lieu of the holiday not yet granted (Sec. 17 (3) BEEG). This concerns remaining holiday from before parental leave and holiday from parental leave, unless the employer has validly reduced it beforehand.

No reduction after the end. If the employer has not declared a reduction by the last day of the employment relationship, it cannot make up for this afterwards. In the Federal Labour Court case of 16 April 2024 (9 AZR 165/23), a mother resigned with effect from the end of her parental leave after several maternity protection periods and two periods of parental leave. The employer had to pay in lieu of 146 days of holiday, €24,932.42 gross.

How much money? The basis is the average earnings over the last 13 weeks before the end (Sec. 11 BUrlG). The fact that you were on parental leave during this time and earned nothing does not reduce the amount to zero: parental leave is an absence from work through no fault of your own, and what counts is your usual earnings (BAG, 9 AZR 165/23). In the judgment, with €3,700 gross a month and a five-day week, €170.77 was calculated per day of holiday (€3,700 x 3 / 65). The payment in lieu is gross and subject to tax and contributions. How payment in lieu works in general is explained in the guide Remaining holiday on dismissal.

Dismissal and protection against dismissal. From the request for parental leave, at the earliest eight weeks before the start of parental leave up to the third birthday, and during parental leave, the employer may in principle not dismiss you; exceptions exist only with a declaration of admissibility (Zulässigkeitserklärung) from the competent authority (Sec. 18 (1) BEEG). If you resign yourself with effect from the end of parental leave, a notice period of three months applies (Sec. 19 BEEG), more on this under Notice period for employees. If you nevertheless receive a dismissal, you have three weeks from receipt to file a claim (Deadline for an unfair dismissal claim); advice on this is available under Unfair dismissal claim. With a termination agreement, you should have outstanding holiday days expressly regulated.

Parental leave or unpaid leave?

For holiday and protection, the two differ significantly:

Feature	Parental leave	Unpaid special leave
Legal basis	statutory entitlement (Sec. 15 BEEG), up to the third birthday, parts up to the eighth birthday	agreement with the employer
Holiday for the time off	arises in full, reduction only by declaration	as a rule, no statutory holiday arises for the period of special leave (BAG, judgment of 19 March 2019, 9 AZR 315/17)
Remaining holiday from before	carried over by law (Sec. 17 (2) BEEG)	general rules (Sec. 7 (3) BUrlG)
Protection against dismissal	special protection (Sec. 18 BEEG)	no special protection through the special leave
Part-time work during the time off	up to 32 hours a week possible (Sec. 15 (4) BEEG)	by agreement

According to the federal government's family portal (Familienportal), parental leave is not possible during ongoing special leave, because there is no obligation to work that could be suspended. For holiday purposes, parental leave is therefore usually the more favourable choice, because holiday arises in full without a declaration of reduction and partial months are not reduced. How a release from work by the employer affects your holiday is explained in the guide Release from work.

Checklist: holiday before, during and after parental leave

Before parental leave

• Calculate your remaining holiday and, if possible, take it before the start or have it carried over deliberately.
• Check the dates of parental leave with a view to full calendar months before you request it.
• Keep the employer's certificate of parental leave (Sec. 16 (1) BEEG) and check whether it contains a declaration of reduction.

During parental leave

• Collect the employer's letters about holiday. A reduction requires a declaration that reaches you.

After your return

• Check your holiday balance: remaining holiday from before, reduced or unreduced holiday from parental leave, current year.
• Apply for carried-over remaining holiday in good time, at the latest in the year after your return.
• If the employment relationship ends: demand payment in lieu in writing and observe exclusion periods in the employment contract or collective agreement.

For employers: If you want to reduce holiday, do so in a way that can be proven as soon as parental leave has been requested, for example together with the certificate under Sec. 16 (1) BEEG. After the end of the employment relationship, it is too late.