You get annual holiday days for each month that you work

If the collective agreement says nothing about annual holidays, people follow the Annual Holidays Act (Vuosilomalaki).

How do I get annual holiday days?

The main rule is that the worker gets annual holiday days for each month when he or she works for at least 14 days. If the worker does not have 14 working days during any month, or only has 14 working days during some months, he or she will get annual holiday days for the months when he or she has worked for at least 35 hours.

You get annual holiday days for each month from 1 April to 31 March. This one-year period is called the holiday credit year (lomanmääräytymisvuosi). When you get holiday days for a calendar month, that month is called a full holiday credit month (lomanmääräytymiskuukausi).

• If your employment has lasted less than one year by 31 March, you earn 2 weekdays of holiday for each full holiday credit month.
• If your employment has lasted at least one year by 31 March, you earn 2.5 weekdays of holiday for each full holiday credit month. Some collective agreements have better rules about how much annual holiday days you get.

Weekdays are Monday to Saturday, so there are 6 annual holiday days in one week of holiday.

Example 1: Employment began on 1 January 2020. The worker earns 2 holiday days per month for January, February, and March, and gets six weekdays of holiday (one week) in summer 2020. If the employment continues, the next year the worker gets a full annual holiday: 24 weekdays (four full weeks) in summer 2021, and six weekdays of winter holiday in winter 2021–2022.

Example 2: Employment began on 1 June 2020. By 31 March 2021, the worker has worked for 10 months. Since he or she has not yet worked for a full year, he or she gets 2 holiday days for each month, 20 weekdays in total. The worker has the holiday during the summer holiday season.

Example 3: The worker works 2 days every week, a total of 15 hours per week and about 60 hours per month. By 31 March 2021, the worker has been working more than a year. The worker gets 12 x 2.5 holiday days = 30 holiday days.

You also get holiday days during some types of absence. These absence types are, for example, sick leave, parental leave and lay-off periods. Read more about these absences in another section.

You will get a winter holiday after your employment has lasted at least one year

You will get a winter holiday after you have worked for the same company for a full holiday credit year (from 1 April to 31 March). A full annual holiday is 30 weekdays (24 days of holiday in the summer and 6 days of holiday in the winter).

Watch a video on how winter holiday days are counted (in Finnish):

Sometimes, you may get a winter holiday even if your employment did not begin on 1 April. This happens if 1 April was not a working day for that worker.

Example: Employment began on 2 April, but 1 April was a Sunday. The worker always works from Monday to Friday and has Saturdays and Sundays off. Because the employment began on the first weekday after 1 April, the worker got 2.5 holiday days for each month already during this year (Opinion of the Labour Council 1208-87).

If you work so little that you get no holiday

If you work so little that you earn no holiday days, you have the right to have two days off for each calendar month when your employment relationship has been in force.

A worker who has worked for the same company and has had several fixed-term contracts one after another has the right to have days off if he or she has not had a holiday. The worker also has the right to get holiday compensation, which is paid when he or she has the days off.

Read more about annual holiday when your job is fixed-term.

You also get annual holiday days during some absences

The Annual Holidays Act says that the worker will get annual holiday days also based on some days during which he or she has not worked. Such times are: a maximum of 75 working days, if you have been away from work because of sickness, an accident, or medical rehabilitation, and a maximum of 160 weekdays (half a year) if you have been on pregnancy or parental leave. You do not get holiday days based on child care leave.

If you are laid off full-time, you get holiday days based on the first 30 working days. If the layoff is interrupted even for a short time, and you work before another lay-off period begins, the 30 days is counted again from the beginning. Read more about lay-offs and annual holidays.

A worker who gets holiday days using the rule of 35 days/month also gets holiday days based on a maximum of 105 calendar days when he or she has been sick or in medical rehabilitation, and based on 42 calendar days when he or she has been laid off. These numbers are counted separately for each holiday credit year.

The Annual Holidays Act has changed in 2019. The new rule is that if the annual holiday is less than 24 days (4 weeks) because of illness, an accident or medical rehabilitation, the worker gets additional holiday days.

Section 7 of the Annual Holidays Act (pdf) has a list of absence types for which you get holidays.

Holiday pay and holiday compensation

When you are on your annual holiday, you will get at least your regular or average pay.

If the worker has no right to take annual holiday (vuosiloma), and then also gets no holiday pay (lomapalkka), he or she has the right to get holiday compensation (lomakorvaus). The holiday compensation is paid on 30 September or before that. The worker also has the right to get holiday compensation if he or she uses the right to take days off to compensate for the holiday, as set out in the Annual Holidays Act. The holiday compensation is then paid when the worker takes the days off, in the same way as the holiday pay would be paid.

If the employment ends and the worker can not take the holiday that he or she has earned, he or she gets no holiday pay, but does get holiday compensation.

The employer must give the worker a calculation sheet that shows how much holiday pay or holiday compensation the worker gets, and how they are calculated.

Use PAM’s annual holiday calculator (in Finnish) to see how much annual holiday and holiday pay you will get.

What about the holiday bonus (lomaraha/lomaltapaluuraha)?

Holiday bonuses are additional benefits that workers get based on the collective agreement. The Finnish term for holiday bonus is different in different collective agreements: lomaraha or lomaltapaluuraha. The holiday bonus is 50 % of the holiday pay for the holiday that the worker has earned (2 or 2.5 days per month).

You can only get the holiday bonus if you begin the holiday on the agreed time, and return from the holiday immediately after the holiday ends.

Read more:

• Giving annual holiday, taking annual holiday, and deciding when the annual holiday is
• How are the wages, holiday pay and holiday bonus paid?
• Annual holiday and lay-offs
• Annual holiday when your job is fixed-term

Useful links

• Annual Holidays Act (pdf)
• Collective agreements for different sectors