22 September 2025

Holiday reduction – Legal basis, requirements, and calculation

  • Articles
  • Legal
  • Employment / Immigration

Employees often plan their vacations well in advance and try to make the most of their annual vacation entitlement by using public holidays. However, many employees, and employers too, are unaware that under certain conditions it is possible to reduce vacation entitlement.

  • Dr. Roman Cincelli

    Senior Legal Associate

Vacation entitlement – Basic principle: No work, no vacation

The law grants every employee at least four weeks of vacation per year of service (Art. 329a OR). It is not uncommon for employers to grant their employees five or more weeks of vacation per year of service. The vacation entitlement increases in proportion to the work performed. For four weeks of vacation, the vacation entitlement increases by 1.67 days per month. For five weeks of vacation, the vacation entitlement increases by 2.08 days, and for six weeks of vacation, it increases by 2.5 days per month.

However, Swiss labor law is based on the principle of "no work, no vacation," which is why vacation entitlement does not generally increase if no work is performed. However, this principle is not absolute, and the law provides for certain restrictions. In particular, Art. 329b of the Swiss Code of Obligations deviates from the aforementioned principle and restricts vacation reductions.

Holiday reduction – legal basis (Art. 329b CO)

a) Impediment to work due to fault (Art. 329b para. 1 CO)
If the employee is at fault for being unable to work and this amounts to a full month of work, the vacation entitlement may be reduced by one twelfth. A reduction of one twelfth is permissible for each full month of absence. If the employee is therefore at fault for being unable to work for 1.5 months, their annual vacation entitlement may be reduced by one twelfth. If the absence for which the employee is at fault amounts to 3.5 months, the vacation entitlement may be reduced by three twelfths. However, if the absence for which the employee is at fault is less than one month, the vacation entitlement may not be reduced.

In order for an impediment to work to be considered culpable, there must be obvious misconduct on the part of the employee or serious negligence. Minor negligence is not sufficient. In the event of a dispute, however, the employee bears the burden of proof that they exercised the expected level of care.

b) Impediment to work through no fault of one's own (Art. 329b para. 2 CO)
An inability to work through no fault of one's own exists if the employee becomes unable to work due to circumstances that are personal to him or her but over which he or she has no control. As a rule, illness and accidents are considered to be impediments to work through no fault of the employee, although in individual cases it must be assessed whether the illness or accident was caused by obvious misconduct on the part of the employee. The fulfillment of legal obligations or the exercise of public office also generally constitutes an impediment to work through no fault of the employee.

In the event of an inability to work through no fault of their own, the law grants the employee an absolute grace period (grace period) for the first full month of absence. A reduction in vacation entitlement of one twelfth is therefore only permissible from the second full month of absence. Subsequently, a reduction of one twelfth may be made for each additional full month of absence. For example, if an employee is prevented from working through no fault of their own for a total of 1.5 months, their vacation may not be reduced. If the employee is sick through no fault of their own for 2.5 months, their vacation may be reduced by one twelfth.

c) Pregnancy (Art. 329b para. 3 CO)
In the case of pregnancy-related absence from work, the legal situation is even more generous. The employee concerned is granted an absolute waiting period for the first two full months of absence. The employer may therefore only reduce the vacation entitlement by one twelfth from the third full month of absence. Subsequently, a reduction of one twelfth may be made for each full month of absence.

d) Overview
The following table provides an overview of the extent of possible vacation reductions under Art. 329b CO:

Tabelle_en

Basis for calculating the reduction in vacation entitlement

The reduction in vacation entitlement under Art. 329b of the Swiss Code of Obligations is based on full months of absence. It is not the specific calendar months that are relevant here, but rather the working months, as a reduction in vacation entitlement requires an inability to work, which is only possible on working days. Because not every working month has the same number of days, for practical reasons the calculation is based on an average month of 21.75 days. If the inability to work thus amounts to 21.75 days, this constitutes a full month of absence.

Article 329b of the Swiss Code of Obligations expressly states that the calculation of vacation reductions is based on the year of service and not on the calendar year. This means that the waiting period starts anew in each new year of service. In practice, this means that a new, individual waiting period begins for each employee on the anniversary of their starting date. For the sake of simplicity, many employers therefore base their calculations on the calendar year, but this must be noted in the employment contracts or in the personnel regulations in order to be valid.

Specific questions about vacation reduction

a) Accumulation of individual instances of inability to work?
The absence from work does not have to be continuous. Rather, absences from work are added up over the course of the year of service, whereby individual days and half-days can also be taken into account. This means that absences from work are accumulated over a year of service.

b) Accumulation of individual grace periods?
If an employee is unable to work for several reasons, only the longer waiting period applies. For example, if an employee is absent due to illness through no fault of her own and pregnancy, the one-month waiting period due to absence from work through no fault of her own is not combined with the two-month waiting period for pregnancy-related absence from work, and only the longer, two-month waiting period applies. Accordingly, in such a case, all days of absence, including those not related to pregnancy, are also counted.

c) Reduction in the event of partial incapacity for work?
The reduction of vacation entitlement is also possible in the case of partial incapacity to work, even if the calculation is somewhat more complicated in this case. If an employee is only partially incapacitated for work, the actual duration of the incapacity to work must be taken into account. If, for example, an employee is 50% incapacitated for work after an accident through no fault of their own, it takes twice as long for the waiting period to be exhausted. The reduction in vacation entitlement therefore only takes effect after four months of incapacity to work but can then be made at a rate of one twelfth per full month of absence.

d) Different provisions in the employment contract or staff regulations?
In principle, it is permissible to include provisions in the employment contract or staff regulations that deviate from the statutory reduction in vacation entitlement in Art. 329b CO. However, any deviating provisions regarding inability to work through no fault of the employee (Art. 329b para. 2 CO) and pregnancy-related inability to work (Art. 329b para. 3 CO) must be more favorable to the employee, as these are relatively mandatory provisions of law. In the case of fault-based inability to work (Art. 329b para. 1 CO), provisions that are less favorable to the employee are also permissible, as this is a dispositive provision.

e) Employer's obligation to reduce vacation time?
The reduction of vacation is not an obligation, but a right of the employer, which can be waived. In practice, such a waiver often takes place implicitly, with the employer transferring the unused vacation days in full to the following year, which is sometimes also evident from the payroll accounting or internal time recording systems.


Our MME labor law team will be happy to assist you with any questions you may have about vacation and vacation reduction.

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