A new holiday year begins on 1 September 2026. Employees therefore start accruing a new entitlement to paid holiday while still being able to take holiday accrued previously.
As an employer, it is particularly important to keep track of deadlines, outstanding holiday entitlement and situations where holiday cannot be taken as planned.
Here is a brief overview of the key rules.
The 2026/2027 holiday year runs from 1 September 2026 to 31 August 2027. This is the period during which the employee accrues paid holiday.
Holiday can be taken during the holiday-taking period, which runs from 1 September 2026 to 31 December 2027.
The holiday-taking period therefore lasts a total of 16 months. As a general rule, holiday accrued on an ongoing basis can be taken from the month following accrual until the end of the holiday-taking period.
As a general rule, an employee accrues 2.08 days of paid holiday per month. This corresponds to 25 days of holiday for an employee who is employed throughout an entire holiday year.
Holiday is accrued on an ongoing basis. As a general rule, holiday accrued in one month can therefore be taken from the following month.
The employer and employee may also agree that holiday can be taken in advance. The agreement should be made in writing to avoid any uncertainty about the number of days, subsequent accrual or how the holiday should be dealt with if the employee leaves the company.
As a general rule, the employer determines when holiday is to be taken following consultation with the employee and must, as far as possible, take the employee’s wishes into account.
The employee is entitled to three consecutive weeks of main holiday during the period from 1 May to 30 September.
The employer must normally give:
Different rules may apply under a collective agreement or a specific individual agreement.
The rules depend on whether the holiday concerned falls within the first four weeks of holiday or is holiday in excess of four weeks.
As a general rule, the first four weeks of holiday must be taken. They cannot normally be replaced by a cash payment while the employee remains employed.
Depending on the circumstances, holiday in excess of four weeks may:
An agreement to carry over holiday must be entered into no later than 31 December.
How a payment is handled depends, among other things, on whether the employee is entitled to paid holiday or holiday allowance, the employee’s employment circumstances and whether the employee receives any public income support benefits.
If an employee becomes ill before the holiday begins, the illness will, as a general rule, prevent the holiday from being taken. The employer therefore cannot require the employee to take the holiday.
If an employee becomes ill during the holiday, the employee may be entitled to replacement holiday. The employee must report the illness as soon as possible and, as a general rule, obtain medical documentation from the first day of illness.
If the employee has been employed by the employer throughout the entire holiday year, the first five days of illness during holiday will, as a general rule, be qualifying days for which no replacement holiday is granted.
If the employee has not been employed throughout the entire holiday year, the number of qualifying days is reduced proportionately according to the length of employment.
If an employee has been prevented from taking holiday towards the end of the holiday-taking period due to, for example, illness or maternity/paternity leave, up to four weeks of holiday may be carried over.
Only the holiday that the employee was actually prevented from taking may be carried over.
The employer should ensure that the relevant conditions are met and that the carry-over is registered correctly. As a general rule, companies can register a carry-over due to an obstacle preventing holiday from being taken up until 30 September following the end of the holiday-taking period.
Additional contractual days off, special holiday days and any sixth week of holiday are not governed by the Danish Holiday Act.
The applicable rules may instead be set out in:
The specific contractual basis should therefore be checked before additional days off are carried over, paid out or forfeited.
Holiday administration often becomes more complex when an employee:
In these situations, an incorrect assessment may lead to errors in salary, holiday pay and registration.
Azets helps businesses assess individual holiday cases and ensure that holiday, salary and registration are handled correctly.
If you have an employee whose case is complicated by illness, maternity/paternity leave, termination of employment, holiday taken in advance or outstanding holiday, it may be beneficial to clarify the rules before the holiday is registered or paid out.
This article provides a general overview but cannot replace a specific legal assessment.
If you, as an employer, need advice about holidays or other employee/HR-related matters, please feel free to contact us.
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