learning-platform/knowledge-base/holiday-and-leave.md

title, category, source_files, summary, tags, related_topics, key_facts, ai_context

title	category	source_files	summary	tags	related_topics	key_facts	ai_context
Holiday and Leave	Anything to do with (holiday) leave	docs/Anything to do with (holiday) leave/holiday-vacation-leave.md docs/Anything to do with (holiday) leave/sick-leave.md docs/Anything to do with (holiday) leave/parental-leave.md docs/Anything to do with (holiday) leave/special-leave.md	All leave types: holiday/vacation leave (entitlement, registration in Shifts and Exact, carry-over, public holidays, interchangeable holidays), sick leave (reporting, Poortwachter, company doctor, wage continuation), parental leave (maternity, partner/paternity, parental, adoption/foster), and special leave (study, unpaid, family situations, emergency/short-term/long-term care, informal care).	leave vacation holiday sick-leave parental-leave maternity-leave paternity-leave special-leave care-leave study-leave unpaid-leave shifts exact wazo poortwachter	day-to-day.md pension-scheme-and-benefits.md how-we-work-together.md learning-personal-development.md	vacation_days_fulltime mandatory_consecutive_vacation carry_over_hours_fulltime statutory_days_expiry non_statutory_days_expiry leave_admin_tool sick_report_window wage_continuation_illness maternity_leave_weeks partner_birth_leave parental_leave_per_child study_leave_days unpaid_leave_max interchangeable_holidays_per_year 25 (20 statutory + 5 non-statutory) 2 weeks per year 80 6 months after the accrual calendar year 5 years Microsoft Shifts (requests) + Exact (balance) 08:30–09:00 by phone to People Officer 100% year 1, 70% year 2 16 (20 for multiple births) 1 week paid (100%) + 5 weeks additional (70% via UWV) 26 x weekly hours (9 weeks paid at 70% before age 1) 5 per year (40h week, pro-rata), expire 31 December 12 months (permanent contracts) 4	The "People Officer" is the Holacracy role that approves and administers all leave (see who-we-are.md / how-we-work-together.md). Leave REQUESTS are made in Microsoft Shifts; leave BALANCES and absence are administered in Exact. Time-for-Time (TfT) registration steps are documented canonically in day-to-day.md (Overtime) and only referenced here. Parental-leave rules align with the Dutch Work and Care Act (Wet Arbeid en Zorg / WAZO); care-leave rules also derive from WAZO. Unpaid leave and several care leaves reduce untaxed allowances and can affect pension and the annual salary raise — cross-reference pension-scheme-and-benefits.md and learning-personal-development.md (Growth & Reward).

Holiday and Leave

This section covers every form of leave at Respellion: holiday/vacation leave, sick leave, parental leave, and special leave (study, unpaid, family/care situations).

Where to request and register leave: Leave requests are made in "Shifts" within Microsoft Teams and approved by the People Officer; balances and absence are administered in Exact. This applies to all leave types below, including sick leave.

Holiday and Vacation Leave

Leave procedure

When you take leave, you'll of course have a critical look at your calendar and your colleagues and make sure that your colleagues know that you are not there before you take leave. The administration is done in "Shifts" within Microsoft Teams.

Make a new Request for Time-Off in Microsoft Shifts with the right category. This also includes Sick Leave. Your request will be approved by the People Officer, after which the leave will be visible in Shifts to the whole team.

Create an event in your own calendar for your holiday to ensure your agenda is blocked.

If you are not sure whether your leave falls under holiday hours but, for example, under care or a sudden absence, please contact the People Officer role so together we can look at the possibilities. Also see the Sick Leave and Special Leave sections below for more info.

Leave administration in Exact

1. Basic Principles

• Time sheets are for productive hours: in the time-sheet administration you only register productive hours (clients, internal projects, work meetings, or business development). Absences such as leave should not be registered here.
• Leave administration for absences: all forms of absence — regular leave, special leave, and time-for-time — are registered via the leave registration module in Exact.
• Time-for-Time (TfT): if you work more hours than your contract stipulates in a month, these extra hours will be added to your TfT balance at the beginning of the following month.

2. How to Register Regular Leave

1. In Exact Online, navigate to the Leave Registration module.
2. Click on "Create leave registration".
3. Select your own name.
4. Under Leave Type, choose "Verlof" (Leave).
5. In the Description field, note the dates and the number of hours you wish to take off.
6. Upon approval, this will be automatically deducted from your leave balance (statutory hours are used first, followed by non-statutory hours).

3. How to Register Time-for-Time (TfT)

TfT accrues at the beginning of each month (the previous month's overtime is added as a separate balance) and is taken via the same Leave Registration flow, choosing leave type "Tijd-voor-tijd"; ensure you do not create a negative TfT balance. The full TfT accrual logic and compensation rates (weekday 100%, weekend 175%, public holidays 300%) are documented in Day to Day → Overtime and Flexible Hours.

Vacation leave

If you work full-time, you are entitled to 25 vacation days. Of these, 20 are statutory and 5 are non-statutory. If you work part-time, this is calculated based on the amount of time you work. The same applies when you start or stop employment mid-year.

We think it's important to chill for a considerable amount of time during the year — and when we say this, we really mean relax and not think about work. That's why you must take two consecutive working weeks of vacation a year.

How to take (annual) leave

You need to apply for leave in advance, in "Shifts" within Microsoft Teams. Coordinate within your circle who is on holiday and when, and make sure that important things or certain tasks are transferred to your colleagues during the time when you're on vacation.

When you become ill unexpectedly during your vacation, you will keep your vacation days. Read more in the Sick Leave section below.

Vacation days that have not been used

If by the end of the year you haven't used up your full vacation hours, you can bring 80 hours of leave (on a full-time basis) to the new year. The statutory days expire 6 months after the calendar year in which you accrued them. For example, the vacation days you received in 2024 but did not use expire on July 1st 2025.

• An exception can be made if you were chronically ill.
• Non-statutory supplementary days expire after 5 years.

We find it important that you get days off; therefore it is not intended to save up leave time. That is why we don't pay in exchange for days off.

An upper and lower limit of the leave balance is set on January 1st of each year. On January 1st, a negative balance of one week of contracting hours is permitted. On January 1st, the number of extra non-statutory vacation hours may not exceed twice the amount of contracting hours per week. When the minimum or maximum is reached, taking or saving leave hours is only permitted again after leave hours have been added to or taken from the balance. In the case of leave exceeding the upper limit at the end of the calendar year, agreements will be made to reduce the credit as soon as possible.

Public Holidays

On the following days you get a day off:

• New Year's Day (January 1st)
• Easter Monday
• King's Day (April 27)
• Liberation Day in the anniversary year (May 5th, 2025/2030)
• Ascension Day
• Whit Monday
• Both Christmas Days (December 25th and 26th)

You may also leave a bit earlier (one hour earlier) on:

• Good Friday
• 5th of May in the non-lustrum years
• the day before Christmas
• New Year's Eve

This is a small compensation for those who are working these special days. So taking the day off will cost you the normal 8 hours. There is no extra compensation for public-holiday leave that falls on your standard schedule-free day in case of part-time employment.

The days of public holidays are by default greyed out in Exact. However, you do need to register holiday leave on this day; and if you do need to work on these days, you can register those hours on your project.

Interchangeable Holiday Policy

We want to be an inclusive organization, so we have the Interchangeable Holiday Policy. With this policy, you may exchange 4 national Dutch holidays per year for any other day of your choice. By doing this, we hope to offer a more inclusive arrangement for colleagues who, for example (but not limited to), prefer to celebrate Eid al-Fitr (also referred to in the Netherlands as Suikerfeest), Thanksgiving, Yom Kippur, your birthday, or Christmas Eve.

If you want to take another day off instead of the regular public holidays, you request a day of leave with "verlofsoort" FEESTDAG.

Sick Leave

Respellion wishes to provide a good physical and psychological working environment and strives to make the workplace attractive for the individual, as well as to prevent absence due to illness, by offering an exciting daily work life with unique development opportunities. We believe that open and honest communication helps to reduce absenteeism and supports and retains long-term employees, even when dealing with difficult and sensitive issues.

The sickness and absence policy is made in respect of the employees on leave and the overall operation of the company, in order to accommodate everyone. We all have an obligation to be aware of each other's mental and physical well-being, so it is important that we help each other. Respellion has relevant and competent experience in this area and will support the employee as much as possible, while the individual employee is respectfully obligated to keep Respellion informed.

According to the (Dutch) Wet Verbetering Poortwachter (WVP), the employee and employer are jointly responsible for resuming work as quickly as possible in the event of incapacity for work due to illness. A few points are explained briefly below. We have a separate Absenteeism Protocol that describes this more extensively.

Reporting sick

If you want to call in sick, contact the People Officer role by phone in the morning between 08:30 and 09:00. During the phone call, this colleague will ask you when you think you will be better and discuss what you are working on and what may need to be transferred. The People Officer role will communicate your absence in Microsoft Teams.

If you become ill during the working day and want to go home, report this personally to the People Officer role. When you have recovered, we kindly ask you to call the People Officer role.

(You do not register sick hours in Exact yourself — see Day to Day → Sickness registration.)

During your sickness

When you are sick, make sure you are available on your phone so that we or the external health service (Arbodienst) can reach you. We will keep in touch to hear how you're doing. When your nursing address changes, you must also inform us.

The Wet Verbetering Poortwachter sets out the efforts both you and Respellion need to make to speed up your recovery. The Absenteeism Protocol has more information — make sure you read this when you are sick.

Company doctor

If you are sick for approx. five days, the Medical Case Manager of the Health and Safety Provider named GOED will probably contact you. During this conversation, questions will be asked regarding your health issues. Expect questions about prescribed medications, physical/mental struggles, or issues related to work or private life that could affect your health. Try to answer the questions as best you can so the medical case manager can help and guide you accordingly. This call will take place unannounced.

When you have been ill for (almost) 6 weeks, a next appointment will be scheduled so that a Problem Analysis can be made. A written report will follow; ask the contact person at GOED for log-in details so you can view the Problem Analysis.

Do you dread it? Don't worry — all these steps are here to help and support you. Feel free to contact the People Officer when you are nervous about this. Together you can prepare for this conversation so any doubts or insecurities can be addressed before the scheduled appointment with the Medical Case Manager.

▶️ Last but not least: all medical conversations with GOED are confidential; the employer will not receive any details.

Obligation to continue payment of wages

If you cannot work due to illness, we continue payment of the salary for the first year in full. In the second year, 70% is paid.

Sick during holidays

If you become ill during your holiday, you must inform us as soon as possible (by telephone), stating your holiday address. After your return, you must be able to submit a 'medical certificate' (drawn up by a doctor during the illness) to the occupational health and safety service. This certificate states the duration, nature and treatment of the incapacity for work. Based on this declaration, the occupational health and safety service will advise Respellion on the return of holidays.

On holiday during illness

If you want to take time off during a period of illness to go on holiday, you do so in consultation. Sometimes you will need a 'statement of no objection' from the occupational health and safety service. With this statement, you can submit a request to be allowed to go on holiday. We will decide whether to grant the holiday. Your holiday should never be an obstacle to your recovery.

Taking leave during reintegration

When taking leave, colleagues who can partly perform their own work will have to deduct the days of leave for the entire working day/week from their leave balance. This is because you have also accrued the leave balance over the entire working hours. For example: you have a 36-hour contract and are 50% incapacitated for work, so you are currently working 18 hours a week temporarily. If you want free time during this reintegration, you must apply for 36 holiday hours.

Parental Leave

This policy outlines the parental leave entitlements for Respellion, aligned with current Dutch regulations as stipulated in the Work and Care Act (Wet Arbeid en Zorg).

Maternity Leave

Entitlement. Female employees are entitled to 16 weeks of fully paid maternity leave. For multiple births (e.g., twins or triplets), this is extended to 20 weeks.

Breakdown:

• Pregnancy Leave (Zwangerschapsverlof): 4–6 weeks before the expected due date.
• Maternity Leave (Bevallingsverlof): 10–12 weeks after childbirth.

Important Points:

• It is mandatory to take at least 4 weeks of leave before the expected due date.
• If an employee chooses to take less than 6 weeks before the due date, the remaining days are added to the maternity leave period.
• If the baby is born later than the due date, the period between the due date and the actual birth date is added to the total leave period.
• If the employee becomes ill due to pregnancy before maternity leave is due to start, maternity leave may automatically commence 6 weeks before the estimated delivery date.
• If the baby is hospitalized immediately after birth, maternity leave starts the day after the mother and baby leave the hospital.
• During maternity leave, employees receive 100% of their salary.
• Employees must inform their employer about their intention to take maternity leave at least 3 weeks in advance.
• Holiday hours continue to accrue during maternity leave.

Partner / Paternity Leave

Entitlement. Partners (including same-sex partners) of women who have given birth are entitled to:

• 1 week (5 working days) of fully paid birth leave (geboorteverlof).
• 5 weeks of additional birth leave (aanvullend geboorteverlof) at 70% of their salary.

Important Points:

• The initial 1 week of leave must be taken within the first 4 weeks after the birth.
• The additional 5 weeks must be taken within the first 6 months after the birth.
• The additional leave can be taken all at once or spread out over the 6-month period.
• To take the additional leave, employees must submit a request via the regular leave request procedure at least 4 weeks in advance.
• Employers can only adjust the timing if the leave would cause serious organizational problems, and must finalize any changes no later than 2 weeks before the scheduled leave.
• During the additional leave, the UWV pays 70% of the employee's salary (up to the maximum daily wage).
• Holiday hours continue to accrue during partner leave.

Parental Leave

General Information:

• Parental leave is available for all employees who are parents or legal guardians of children under the age of 8.
• Each parent is entitled to 26 times their weekly working hours of parental leave per child. For example, an employee working 40 hours per week is entitled to 1,040 hours (26 × 40) of parental leave per child.
• Parental leave applies to each child separately. For multiple births or adoptions, the entitlement applies to each child.
• Parents with a "family relationship" with the child (biological parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, and step-parents who live with and take care of the child) are eligible.

Unpaid Parental Leave:

• Can be taken until the child reaches the age of 8.
• The leave can be taken in one block or spread out over time.
• No vacation hours are accumulated over the unpaid parental leave.
• If an employee falls ill during parental leave, the leave continues as normal.
• Employees should discuss how they wish to implement the leave with the People Officer at least 2 months before the desired start date.

Paid Parental Leave:

• Of the total 26 weeks of parental leave, 9 weeks can be taken as paid parental leave.
• The paid leave must be used before the child reaches the age of 1 year.
• During paid parental leave, the employee receives a benefit of 70% of their daily wage.
• This benefit is applied for by the employer to the UWV and the salary is adjusted accordingly.
• The benefit can only be applied for entire work weeks.
• Vacation hours are accumulated over the paid parental leave.
• All other conditions that apply to unpaid parental leave also apply to paid parental leave.

Application Process

For Maternity Leave:

1. Inform the People Officer of the pregnancy and intended maternity leave at least 3 weeks before the leave starts (preferably earlier).
2. Provide a pregnancy declaration letter (zwangerschapsverklaring) from your midwife or gynecologist.
3. The employer will complete a WAZO form (maternity and childbirth benefit form) and send it to the UWV.

For Partner / Paternity Leave:

1. For the initial week of leave, notify your employer as soon as possible after the birth.
2. For the additional 5 weeks, submit a request via the regular leave request procedure at least 4 weeks in advance.

For Parental Leave:

1. Submit a written request via the regular leave request procedure at least 2 months before the desired start date.
2. Specify how you wish to take the leave (all at once or spread out).
3. After consultation, the employer will confirm the leave arrangements in writing.

For Adoption or Foster Care Leave:

1. Notify your employer at least 3 weeks before you want the leave to start.
2. Indicate whether you want to take your leave all at once or spread it out.

Special Leave

Study leave

For every year, you are entitled to 5 days of study leave based on a 40-hour work week, calculated pro rata if you work part-time. These expire on 31 December. You can use the study leave if your selected training takes place during working hours. Apply via the request-for-leave procedure.

Unpaid leave

Employees with a permanent contract may apply for unpaid leave for up to 12 months for educational purposes, travel, or other special activities requiring a longer leave of absence. This can also be used for short-term leave such as extra vacation. The following rules apply:

• Vacation days must be used first in order to request unpaid leave.
• Applications are submitted to the People Officer role.
• Provide as much notice as possible of (long-term) sabbatical leave — at least 3 months before the preferred start date.
• No salary is paid during the agreed period, and benefit arrangements can be suspended.
• During unpaid leave you do not build up holiday pay, holiday hours, unemployment rights, or pension. Read more on the Rijksoverheid webpage.
• If the employee falls ill during the leave, they are not entitled to continued payment of salary during the period of unpaid leave.
• Up to one month of unpaid leave, the employer keeps paying for the pension scheme. After one month, the pension scheme is not paid until the employee resumes daily work.
• In case of a longer period of unpaid leave, you do not receive a travel allowance (nor an internet allowance or other related allowances).
• Taking unpaid leave could affect your annual salary raise.
• If you take unpaid leave for two months or more across the calendar year (in addition to regular and purchased holiday leave), the standard salary raise will not be implemented. As a result, you will not qualify for an annual salary raise if your leave extends to 3.5 months or more, encompassing both paid and unpaid leave periods.

Pension and allowance impacts above relate to Pension Scheme & Benefits; the salary-raise impact relates to Learning & Personal Development → Growth & Reward.

Special leave for activities and (family) situations

There may be special situations where you are not able to work. In these cases you are entitled to special leave with full pay. Common sense applies: if, for example, you are invited to a wedding reception only at the end of the day, you still work in the morning. Apply via the regular request-for-leave procedure.

Situation	Maximum special leave
Deposition for marriage	1 day
Marriage or registered partnership of yourself	2 days
Marriage or registered partnership of a child, brother, sister, parent, parent-in-law, brother-in-law or sister-in-law, provided that the ceremony is attended	1 day
Moving house	1 day per calendar year
Paternity leave	1 workweek and max 5 weeks additional
Spouse/partner, relatives by blood or marriage of the 1st degree passing away	From the day of death until the day of the funeral or cremation
Relatives by blood or marriage of the 2nd degree passing away	2 days: the day of death and the day of the funeral or cremation
Relatives by blood or marriage of the 3rd and 4th degree passing away	The time to attend the funeral or cremation
Necessary doctor's visit which cannot take place outside of working hours	Max 8 hours on a yearly basis, see explanation below
12.5 / 25-year relationship with your partner	1 day

Doctor's visit

A doctor's visit means a visit to the doctor, dentist, a specialist, or a therapist to whom you are referred. You plan it in your own time; if that is not possible, consult with your circle about convenient times (e.g. beginning or end of the working day). We continue payment of salary for the time needed for the doctor's visit, within the working day, to a maximum of two hours per visit. For seeing a specialist there is a maximum of four hours per visit. You will work the remaining hours before or after the visit. The maximum number of hours reimbursed cannot exceed 8 on an annual basis. In special cases there can be a deviation, in consultation with the employer.

'Other' Special Leave Situations — non-family

Other personal situations, like loved ones passing away or a marriage/anniversary of non-family members. Happy or unpleasant things can also happen to non-family members, so we want to provide leave for these situations. The assessment of whether you make use of these days is up to you, but please consult the People Officer role upfront. Some examples: marriage or funeral of a person that is important to you.

Maternity / Paternity / Parental Leave

See the Parental Leave section above.

Emergency, short-term and long-term care-related leave

Working flexibly is very normal in our organization. You get the opportunity to organize your own working hours according to your own preferences. Working from home, even in the evenings, is no problem. So if you cannot work during the daytime for some reason, it is fine with us if you finish it at another time. We give you a lot of freedom and responsibility and trust that you know how to use it well.

If there are urgent private circumstances of a very serious nature, you may be eligible for emergency leave, short-term medical care leave, or long-term care leave. Our starting point is the legal framework of the Work and Care Act (Wet Arbeid en Zorg). We would like to look at the possibilities with you.

You report the situation of force majeure immediately to the People Officer role. If this is not possible, report it as soon as possible. We may require that you demonstrate that you really haven't been able to work as a result of one of the given reasons — for example, by submitting a medical certificate. In addition, we keep track of these hours.

	Emergency	Short term	Long term
Keywords	unforeseen, serious, short-term (such as arranging care)	you're the only one who can care for your very sick (life-threatening) child, spouse, or parent	for necessary care for others, in case of serious illness
Example	picking a sick child up from daycare; waiting for the plumber to fix a burst water pipe	helping partner at home with medical tasks when they just had surgery	caring for a terminally ill partner
Payment	Paid leave, 100%	Paid leave, 70%, fully supplemented	Unpaid leave

Emergency leave. Applicable if there has been an unforeseen emergency with the employee that cannot be delayed — for example a sudden hospitalization of an immediate family member, or your partner giving birth. The length depends on the situation but presumably cannot be longer than one day. Emergency leave is intended for initial care and arranging a structural solution. We expect you to go back to work as soon as the emergency has been resolved. It is possible that emergency leave becomes short-term care leave. We are obligated as an employer to pay the full salary during emergency leave. (Keywords: unforeseen, serious, short-term such as arranging care.)

Short-term medical care leave. You may request short-term care leave if it is necessary to care for a sick partner or resident children. It applies when you are the only person who has to take care of an immediate family member (child, spouse, or parent). Short-term care takes up to twice the hours worked in a week — so 80 hours per year for a full-time workweek. You can also take days alternately. By law we are required to pay 70% of the salary; we choose to pay your salary fully during short-term care leave. If the period of short-term care is not enough, you can also take unpaid long-term care in case of a very serious illness. The employer may ask for a reason for the leave once you return. Care leave may be refused if there are valid reasons (for example, if the company will get in trouble because of the absence). (Keywords: you're the only one who can care for your very sick (life-threatening) child, spouse, or parent.)

Long-term care leave. Possible in case of a seriously ill spouse, child, or parent. From July 1, 2015, you can also take long-term care leave for necessary care (helplessness or illness) of grandparents, grandchildren, brothers/sisters, other housemates, and people with whom you have a social relationship and who are dependent on your help. Salary is not continued during long-term care leave. The employer may only refuse permission in case of substantial business interests. You can take 6 weeks of long-term care leave a year, distributed over 18 weeks. (Keywords: unpaid, for necessary care for others, in case of serious illness.)

WAZO definitions (apply to both short-term and long-term care leave):

• Life-threatening illness: a state of health so serious that, according to objective medical standards, the person's life is in serious danger in the short term.
• "Needy" (in need of assistance): the condition of a person whereby they require assistance for self-reliance, participation, protected living, or shelter that is not provided within the framework of a professional providing assistance and that exceeds the usual assistance.

Taking emergency/care leave will affect the amount of your untaxed allowances such as the home-working allowance and possibly internet or telephone allowance (see Pension Scheme & Benefits and Spending and Contracting).

Informal care ('mantelzorg')

The official government definition: caregivers provide unpaid care for a chronically ill, handicapped, or helpless partner, parent, child, or another family member, friend, or acquaintance for more than 8 hours per week and/or more than 3 months. A caregiver didn't choose to provide care — it happens to someone because that person has an emotional attachment to the person who needs care.

Practice has shown that care and work can be combined, as long as it is managed correctly — both by the organization and by you. This way, overload can be prevented and caregivers keep both their work and family responsibilities well balanced. Research shows that giving visibility to informal care and discussing it can provide very good solutions. Are you a caregiver? Then talk about it with your colleagues and the People Officer (Request for Leave) role, so together we can look at possible support options in addition to leave, and find workable solutions so that informal care and work can be better combined. Taking this leave will affect the amount of your untaxed allowances such as the home-working allowance and possibly internet or telephone allowance.

Related Topics

• Day to Day — Time-for-Time accrual/registration and the rule that sick hours are not self-registered in Exact.
• Pension Scheme & Benefits — the 25 vacation days as a benefit, and how unpaid/care leave affects pension and allowances.
• Learning & Personal Development — study leave for development, and the salary-raise impact of extended unpaid leave.
• How We Work Together — the People Officer role and the core values that frame our flexible approach to leave.