Falling Ill on Holiday: Reclaiming Your Days
Two weeks of holiday, and the fever starts on day three. The recuperative value is gone — the holiday days are not. § 9 of the Federal Leave Act protects precisely this situation and prevents days of illness from being counted against your annual leave. It does, however, require a few formalities to be observed.
What § 9 BUrlG provides
The provision states that days of incapacity for work evidenced by a medical certificate are not counted against annual leave. The entitlement therefore revives: the affected days become available again later. This is mandatory for the statutory minimum; for contractual surplus leave something different may be agreed, though that is rare in practice.
The concept of incapacity for work is decisive. Feeling unwell, or nursing a cold you could have worked through, is not enough. What matters is whether the illness would have prevented you from performing your work — assessed and certified by a doctor.
The certificate: from day one
Unlike ordinary sickness absence, where many contracts only require a certificate from the fourth day, on holiday you should obtain one from the very first day of illness, because § 9 BUrlG expressly requires proof by medical certificate. Without one the days count as leave taken, even if you genuinely were ill. Report the illness to your employer without delay as well, and make a note of when and how you sent the notification.
If you fall ill abroad the same principle applies: you need a medical certificate stating the incapacity for work and its duration. A treatment receipt alone is not enough. Within the European Union certificates issued by doctors are generally treated as equivalent; outside it, the certificate should visibly come from a qualified practitioner. Also give your employer your address at the holiday location if you are staying there.
What you expressly may not do
A common and expensive misconception: you may not add the recovered days to the current holiday on your own initiative. § 9 BUrlG credits the leave back, it does not extend it. Anyone who simply stays at the holiday location after recovering instead of returning to work risks a formal warning and, on repetition, dismissal.
The correct route is a fresh leave request for the credited days, approved like any other leave. Many employers will in practice agree to an extension where cover is arranged, but there is no right to it.
Pay, and illness before the holiday starts
For the days of illness within the holiday you receive statutory sick pay from your employer rather than holiday pay. For most employees the difference is economically neutral, because both are based on average earnings. It only becomes relevant once the six-week continued pay period is exhausted and health insurance sickness benefit takes over.
If you are already unfit for work before the planned start of the holiday, the leave is not taken up at all. The approved days remain intact in full and have to be requested afresh. Here too the leave does not automatically shift to the end of the illness but must be agreed again.
Calculate, document, check
Keep your own overview of days requested, days taken and days credited back because of illness, and reconcile it with the employer's statement. How many days you are owed in total and what the remainder is worth is shown by the holiday entitlement calculator once you enter the days actually taken — days credited back because of illness expressly do not belong there.
Illness on holiday therefore costs you recuperation but not holiday days, provided you notify your employer without delay and produce a medical certificate from the first day. The credited days must then be requested afresh; you may not extend the holiday on your own initiative. Check your remaining entitlement in the holiday entitlement calculator. This overview is a non-binding orientation and does not replace employment law advice.