The employee should seek to utilise his/her vacation leave entitlement during the same calendar year when it is due. If not applied for, the employee cannot claim payment. It is only possible to carry forward up to 50% of the annual leave entitlement to the following year if there is an agreement with the employer.

Upon termination from employment, an employee has the right to claim financial compensation for any balance of outstanding leave that is due.

The employee shall be entitled to a minimum of thirty-two (32) hours of paid leave per year, granted by the employer, for urgent family reasons; provided that the first sixteen (16) hours used for such reasons shall be deducted from the employee’s annual leave entitlement, while the remaining sixteen (16) hours shall be deducted from the employee’s annual sick leave entitlement, subject to the availability of the respective leave balances.

Such urgent leave has to be related to cases of sickness or accident to members of the immediate family of the employee.

The amount of sick leave varies substantially according to the relevant sector of industry. The applicable amount of sick leave entitlement is provided in:

The relevant WRO that regulates the specific sector of industry; or

Where the sector is not covered by a WRO, an employee is entitled to two working weeks of sick leave annually (calculated in hours).

In occasions of sickness, a medical certificate has to be presented to the employer. If the absence from work is not covered by a medical certificate, other arrangements (like applying for leave) have to be sought.

The employer is only required to issue wages for the amount of sick leave entitlement provided by law. If an employee remains sick after having exhausted all the sick leave entitlement, s/he will only continue to receive the Sickness benefit from the Social Security to which s/he may be entitled.