Every EU country sets its own minimum paid leave on top of the EU-wide floor. Get it wrong and you face fines, disputes, and staff who stop trusting you. Get it right and scheduling becomes far simpler.

The EU Baseline

The Working Time Directive guarantees every EU worker at least 4 weeks (20 days) of paid annual leave. That is the floor. Most countries sit well above it.

Key Country Minimums

Here is what workers in selected EU countries receive as a statutory minimum:

  • Latvia - 4 calendar weeks (approximately 20 working days), with some categories entitled to additional leave
  • Germany - 20 working days (based on a 5-day week), though collective agreements often push this to 25-30 days
  • France - 25 working days, plus up to 10 public holidays depending on region
  • Spain - 22 working days minimum
  • Poland - 20 working days for employees with under 10 years of service, 26 days after that
  • Netherlands - 20 statutory days, but most employers offer 25
  • Sweden - 25 days, and workers can carry over up to 5 days per year
  • Austria - 25 days for the first 25 years of service, 30 days after
  • Italy - 4 weeks minimum, with public sector workers often receiving more

What Counts as a "Day"

This trips up managers more than anything else. Some countries count calendar days (including weekends), others count working days. Latvia, for instance, counts calendar days for its 4-week entitlement. A worker who takes a week off consumes 7 calendar days, not 5 working days. Plan your rota around the actual calendar impact, not just the headline number.

Public Holidays: Separate or Included?

In most EU countries, public holidays sit on top of annual leave. A French employee gets 25 days of leave plus up to 10 public holidays - that is 35 days when they might not be at work. Build this into your headcount model. If you run a restaurant, retail outlet, or care facility with 15 staff, you need to know that at peak summer you could have 4 or 5 people simultaneously on leave.

Part-Time and Contract Workers

Part-time employees accrue leave proportionally. A worker on 3 days per week in Germany accrues 12 working days of leave per year (20 x 3/5). The formula is straightforward, but applying it across a mixed workforce of full-time, part-time, and fixed-term contract staff requires consistent tracking.

Cross-Border Teams

If you manage staff in more than one EU country, you cannot apply a single policy to everyone. A worker based in Austria with 28 years of service has 30 days of statutory leave. Your Spanish office worker with the same tenure has 22. Applying the lower number to the Austrian employee is illegal.

Carryover Rules

Most EU countries allow workers to carry over unused leave to the next year, but with limits:

  • Spain allows carryover for up to 18 months if leave was not taken due to illness
  • Germany allows carryover until 31 March of the following year in most cases
  • France restricts carryover to a narrow set of circumstances

Letting carryover pile up creates a liability. Workers leaving with large unused balances receive cash payouts. For a team of 10 with average wages of €2,500 per month, a 5-day carryover per person equals roughly €5,700 in potential payout risk.

Practical Scheduling Tips

  • Mark each employee's entitlement and country in your system before the year starts
  • Set a rule that no more than 30% of a team can be on leave in any given week
  • Flag workers who have not taken leave by September - late clusters cause coverage gaps
  • Approve leave in writing and track approvals against the statutory balance, not just gut feel

Managing leave across borders requires more than a spreadsheet. A scheduling tool that tracks entitlements per employee, logs approvals, and shows real-time coverage gaps saves hours of admin each month.

Try it at rezano.lv.