Holiday entitlement in Switzerland shows up in everyday life as a number on the holiday account. Behind it lie three questions: how many weeks are owed, when and how are they taken, and what happens to holiday that is still open at the end of the year? This guide explains the rules of the Code of Obligations (CO, OR) for private-law employment relationships and shows how to keep a holiday account that can be followed and checked. The employment contract, staff regulations or a collective employment agreement may provide for more holiday and must also be observed.
Minimum entitlement and year of service
Under Art. 329a, para. 1 CO, the employer grants at least four weeks’ holiday for each year of service, and at least five weeks until the age of 20 is completed. SECO points out that individual and collective employment agreements may provide for higher entitlements; older employees often receive a longer entitlement. Because the minimum rules are semi-mandatory (Art. 362, para. 1 CO), an agreement may not depart from them to the employee’s disadvantage.
The law counts in years of service, not calendar years. The year of service begins on joining. A holiday account by calendar year is therefore an organisational presentation which, viewed over twelve months, must not fall below the statutory entitlement. The contractual basis belongs in the employment contract.
With a five-day week, four weeks correspond to twenty working days. The figure of twenty is a conversion for this working pattern and not a statutory daily entitlement. Anyone who works fewer or different days has the same weekly entitlement but a different number of days.
Part-time work, irregular workloads and joining dates
Part-time work does not shorten the holiday weeks. Someone who regularly works three days a week needs three holiday days for one week of holiday. With an entitlement of four weeks, that is twelve days. Never compare holiday accounts on the number of days alone, therefore: twelve days of a three-day week and twenty days of a five-day week are the same weekly entitlement. Record the unit used and, when the workload changes, calculate the entitlement already accrued and the future entitlement separately.
For an incomplete year of service, holiday is to be granted in proportion to the duration of the employment relationship in that year of service (Art. 329a, para. 3 CO). For exactly half a year of service, that is half the annual entitlement. For other dates, disclose the calculation method.
Which days count as public holidays is determined by the Confederation and the cantons: the federal national day is treated like a Sunday, and the cantons may treat up to eight further public holidays in the same way (Art. 20a, para. 1 ArG). Whether a public holiday falling within a holiday counts as a holiday day is not stated expressly in the CO. Regulate it in the staff regulations so that the minimum entitlement of four weeks (Art. 329a, para. 1 CO) is not undercut, and calculate the same way for everyone.
For part-time staff with irregular workloads, the case law allows, according to SECO, a holiday allowance paid in addition to salary. It must be shown separately both in the employment contract and on every payslip, as a percentage or an amount in francs. The sentence “holiday included in the hourly wage” is not sufficient; if the entry is missing, the employer risks paying the holiday twice. According to SECO, holiday pay in principle also includes regular allowances and variable salary components such as commissions.
Planning and approving holiday
The employer determines when holiday is taken and has regard to the employee’s wishes to the extent that they are compatible with the interests of the business (Art. 329c, para. 2 CO). According to SECO, holiday must be fixed early enough to allow reasonable planning, as a rule at least three months in advance. Employees need accept a short-notice postponement only in emergencies. The employer may in principle order company holidays.
Holiday is, as a rule, to be granted during the year of service in question, and at least two weeks of holiday must be taken consecutively (Art. 329c, para. 1 CO). Anyone who approves only single days can fail this duty even if the account balances at the end. A request that has been submitted is not yet an approval: in the overview, keep open requests separate from approved holiday.
During holiday, the full salary attributable to it is owed (Art. 329d, para. 1 CO). During the employment relationship, holiday may not be compensated by payments in money or other benefits (Art. 329d, para. 2 CO); nor can this be departed from by contract (Art. 361 CO). If a person falls ill or has an accident during holiday, the holiday days are, according to SECO, granted again to the extent that the purpose of recuperation is defeated. The reasons for this absence do not belong in the shared team overview (more on recording absences).
Remaining holiday, carry-over and limitation
The law contains no forfeiture of holiday at the end of the year. Art. 329c, para. 1 CO requires holiday to be granted, as a rule, in the year of service in question; this is a planning duty of the employer, not a forfeiture rule. Claims arising from the employment relationship become time-barred after five years under Art. 128, point 3 CO, and under Art. 129 CO this period cannot be altered by agreement. SECO states that the period begins after the end of the year for which the holiday should have been granted.
A regulation clause which cancels remaining holiday after a period is therefore delicate. Never delete holiday days solely on the basis of a software setting; clarify the contractual and legal basis case by case. It is more sensible to make remaining holiday visible early and to agree a schedule for taking it with those concerned. When the employment relationship ends, according to SECO payment in lieu in money is possible in certain cases; check the conditions in the case of leaving (see the leaving checklist).
When holiday may be reduced
Art. 329b CO governs reduction. If the person is prevented from working through their own fault for more than one month in total during a year of service, the employer may reduce the holiday by one twelfth for each full month (para. 1). If the prevention is through no fault of the person, for personal reasons such as illness or accident, a reduction is not permitted as long as the prevention does not exceed one month in total in the year of service (para. 2). There is also no reduction for pregnancy of up to two months, nor when statutory parental, care and adoption leave is taken (para. 3). For prevention through no fault of more than one month, the law contains no express reduction rule; clarify such cases legally before deducting holiday days. The type of absence must be recorded properly for this; the guide on sick pay deals with salary during illness.
Practical example: Atelier Lindenbogen
The Atelier Lindenbogen is a fictitious SME. An adult employee regularly works three full days a week and is entitled by contract to five weeks’ holiday per year of service, i.e. more than the four statutory weeks. Her annual entitlement is 5 × 3 = 15 working days. There are no public holidays during the holiday and no earlier balances in this example.
| Movement | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Annual entitlement | 5 weeks × 3 working days | 15 days |
| Already taken | 2 weeks × 3 working days | 6 days |
| Approved, future | 1 week × 3 working days | 3 days |
| Still freely plannable | 15 − 6 − 3 | 6 days |
The six freely plannable days are two further weeks of holiday. After the holiday already taken, 15 − 6 = 9 days remain open, of which three are already approved for a future week. Both statements are correct; they describe different balances. In the holiday overview, therefore, explain whether planned holiday has already been deducted.
For another case, the Atelier assumes that the same employee joins on 1 July. The calendar year then has 184 of 365 days remaining: 15 × 184 / 365 = 7.56 days, rounded to half days 7.5. Over the year of service from 1 July to 30 June, 7.5 days fall in the year of joining and, arithmetically, 7.5 days in the first half of the following year, together 15 days again. In a holiday account by calendar year, the full annual entitlement of 15 days appears in the following year. The calculation holds for days of equal length: with five shortened working days a week, the same five weeks would be 25 shorter days.
Checklist
- Contractual weekly entitlement compared with the statutory minimum (four weeks, five under the age of 20)
- Year of service and calendar-year presentation aligned
- Working days and day lengths entered correctly for each person
- Joining dates and workload changes calculated transparently
- At least two weeks of holiday planned consecutively
- Open requests, approved planning and holiday taken shown separately
- Holiday allowance for irregular workloads shown in the contract and on every payslip
- Remaining balances checked legally before any technical forfeiture
- Reductions under Art. 329b CO justified and recorded separately from holiday taken
How KMU | base helps
HR | base manages holiday under Time › Absences. With “Holiday allowance and remaining holiday”, each person sees per year the entitlement, carry-over, holiday taken, planned and remaining; the planned days include requested holiday. The entitlement comes pro rata from the working time model or is set by HR. On joining or leaving during the year, HR | base calculates the entitlement pro rata by calendar days and rounds to the nearest half day. If the entitlement is at the statutory minimum, check the rounded value and, if necessary, adjust it in the Holiday entitlements tab. The holiday account runs by calendar year, not by year of service. If the entitlement differs, for example because the contract provides for more holiday, someone works fewer than five days or is under 20, HR sets it per person and year in the Holiday entitlements tab. HR | base does not apply the higher entitlement until the age of 20 by itself.
“Carry-over and expiry” carries remaining holiday over to the following year automatically, provided an entry exists for the previous year. Under Policies you can limit carry-over and set expiry after 1 to 12 months; by default both are switched off. Whether such a reduction is legally sustainable is not something the software decides. Treat the setting in line with the notes above and have it checked before use.
With “Half days”, employees request a half first or last day of an absence; per absence type you allow or block this in the policies. “Public holidays by canton” counts, for absences, only working days, excluding the canton’s public holidays from the working time model. The lists stored apply per canton; you check the peculiarities of individual municipalities or districts yourself. The team calendar shows the public holidays of your company’s standard working time model, not per person; for people from different cantons, the display and the personal count therefore differ.
You will find details on operation in the HR | base guide. Take a look at the Demo or open a test account. If you have questions, we will help you via the Contact page.
Sources
- Code of Obligations (OR, SR 220), Art. 128, point 3, Art. 129, 329a–329d, 361 and 362, para. 1, as at 1 October 2026: fedlex.admin.ch (German original), accessed on 27.10.2026.
- Labour Act (ArG, SR 822.11), Art. 20a, as at 1 September 2023: fedlex.admin.ch (German original), accessed on 27.10.2026.
- SECO: FAQ on private employment law – Holiday (in German), accessed on 27.10.2026.
This guide does not replace legal or tax advice. Information as at 27.10.2026.