How much annual leave you get, who picks the dates, what happens to last year's days and when they can be paid out in money — leave is where both employees and employers get things wrong. We break down the rules of the Labour Code (Zákonník práce, ZP), with a worked example running five years ahead. This article concerns employment contracts only: dohoda workers have no leave entitlement.
In short
- The base is 4 weeks; from age 33 and for anyone permanently caring for a child — 5; teachers get 8 (§103 ZP).
- The employer sets the dates with 14 days' notice; if last year's balance is not scheduled by 30 June, the choice passes to the employee (§111, §113 ZP).
- The basic 4 weeks cannot be cashed out while you work; the whole balance is paid only on termination (§116 ZP).
- Under the law, leave does not expire: the ZP contains no rule extinguishing the right.
- Illness interrupts leave only with an official sick note; a ruined holiday without the paperwork means nothing legally (§114 ZP).
How many days you get
The base — 4 weeks. Five weeks go to an employee who is 33 or older by the end of the calendar year and to anyone permanently caring for a child; teaching and academic staff get 8 weeks (§103 ZP).
The right to the full year's leave arises after 60 worked days in the calendar year (§101 ZP). Worked less than the full year with this employer — leave accrues proportionally: one twelfth per full month (§102 ZP). Not even 60 days? Then one twelfth per every 21 days worked (§105 ZP).
Leave can be reduced for missed working days: by one twelfth for the first 100 missed days and by another twelfth for every further 21 (§109 ZP). Maternity leave and sick leave cause no reduction — parental leave does, more on that below.
Who decides when you go on leave
The employer schedules leave. The law tells it to do so "after discussing it with the employee" — but a discussion is not consent (§111 ZP). It must hear your wishes and weigh your justified interests, yet the decision is its own.
Hence the straight answer to a frequent question: the dates were set differently from what you wanted — you must comply. You cannot refuse. Once leave is scheduled, you are on leave — you cannot show up and demand work.
The employer's freedom has five limits:
| Limit | The gist |
|---|---|
| 14 days' notice | The period can be shortened only with the employee's consent; "you're on leave from tomorrow" doesn't work without it (§111 ZP) |
| Justified interests of the employee | A vague phrase, but it is in the law — leverage against abuse |
| At least four weeks a year | Where the employee is entitled to them |
| One part of at least two unbroken weeks | Slicing everything into single days is out, unless agreed otherwise (§111 par. 5 ZP) |
| Banned periods | Leave cannot be scheduled onto sick leave, maternity, paternity or parental leave (§112 par. 2 ZP) |
The one moment the choice passes to the employee: carried-over days the employer failed to schedule by 30 June (§113 ZP). Before that date the initiative belongs to the employer, after it — to the employee. Hence the typical standoff around 30 June: the employer rushes to schedule something, the employee waits it out to pick the dates themselves.
What happens to unused leave
Leave does not vanish on 31 December — it carries over, and the sequence runs like this (§113, §116 ZP):
- The employer must schedule the carried-over days.
- Not scheduled by 30 June of the following year — the right to schedule passes to the employee.
- Carried-over leave must be used by the end of that following year.
- The basic four weeks cannot be paid out while the employment lasts.
- The part above four weeks, still unused after the following year, is paid out in money.
What exactly must happen by 30 June: the employer must schedule the leave by that date — the days themselves may come later, as long as they fall within that year. Scheduling August leave on 1 June is perfectly lawful. The employee's right arises only when nothing at all was scheduled by 30 June.
How the employee schedules leave themselves: not "I'm on leave from tomorrow" but a written notice at least 30 days ahead (§113 par. 2 ZP). It is a notice, not a request — no consent is needed and the employer cannot refuse. Shorter than 30 days — only by mutual agreement.
Does leave expire? The legal answer
The ZP has no rule extinguishing the right to leave. The law sets out procedures and deadlines, but ties no loss of rights to missing them; leave is absent from the list of grounds on which employment rights lapse.
The EU Court of Justice (case C-684/16 Max-Planck) says something different: national law could provide for forfeiture — but only where the employer genuinely enabled the leave and warned in writing about the risk of losing it, with the burden of proof on the employer. Slovak law contains no such mechanism at all, so even a diligent warning does not by itself extinguish leave.
What genuinely limits the employee is the general limitation period: a claim raised too late will fail if the employer pleads limitation.
In practice, accounting departments often write old leave off. There is little legal basis for it, and in a dispute the employee's position is stronger.
The one-line summary: under the law leave does not expire; the accumulated balance is a real liability of the company, payable in full on termination.
What "the part above four weeks" means
The basic four weeks are the European minimum: they cannot be traded for money under any circumstances while the person works. Everything above them lacks that protection.
Leave above four weeks belongs to three groups: the fifth week for those who turned 33 and for carers of a child; four extra weeks for teachers; and whatever the employer added by collective agreement or internal policy.
An example: an employee is 35, five weeks of leave, 12 days unused from two years back. Two years have passed: the 4 days of the fifth week get paid out, while the 8 days from the basic four weeks cannot be — they hang as a liability. An employee under 33 with exactly four weeks has nothing to cash out at all: the balance is either taken or paid on departure.
Maternity and long illness: the deadlines don't apply
A separate rule (§113 ZP): if the employee could not take leave because of maternity or parental leave, long-term incapacity, or release for a public or trade-union function — the employer must grant it after the obstacle ends. However much time has passed: this leave does not expire and the two-year rule does not touch it.
An example: all four weeks from 2024 remain. At the end of 2025 the employee starts maternity leave, then parental leave, and returns in 2029. The four weeks from 2024 went nowhere — the employer must let her take them after her return. The same goes for the 2025 leave.
Two details decide the size of the balance (§144a ZP):
- maternity leave counts as time worked — leave accrues during it;
- parental leave does not count; moreover, days missed because of it can reduce that year's leave under the "100 plus 21" rule (§109 ZP).
So leave grows during maternity leave — not during the years of parental leave.
Falling ill during leave
Leave is interrupted when the employee is officially certified temporarily unfit for work (§114 ZP). Sick days do not count as leave and return to the balance.
The key word is "certified": you need an open sick note. Spent a week ill in the hotel but never saw a doctor — all those days remain leave. A ruined holiday has no legal significance.
Leave is also interrupted by military service, maternity, paternity and parental leave — and by officially registered care for a sick family member (OČR). One exception: if the leave was scheduled onto the care period at your own request, it is not interrupted (§114 ZP).
By contrast, a doctor's visit without a sick note, a wedding or a funeral do not interrupt leave: you may ask the employer to move the days, but you cannot demand it.
Fell ill abroad? The mechanics are the same — you need an officially recognised sick note, just harder to obtain. Within the EU, EEA and Switzerland, social security coordination applies: a local doctor's certificate can be processed through the Social Insurance Agency (Sociálna poisťovňa). Outside the EU everything depends on the bilateral treaty with the country.
Advice to the employee: if you fall ill on holiday and want the days back — see a doctor immediately, not after you return: sick notes are rarely opened retroactively. And tell your employer right away. Advice to the employer: ask for the document — without certified incapacity there is no basis for returning days to the balance.
Leave on termination
Here the rule is simple: on termination of employment the entire unused balance is paid out — including the basic four weeks (§116 par. 3 ZP). It is the single exception to the payout ban.
The flip side: the employer may schedule leave into the notice period after a dismissal notice. That is lawful and common — the person serves out the notice period on leave, and almost nothing is left to pay at settlement.
The takeaway for employers: with last year's days piling up, schedule them yourself by 30 June — otherwise the employee will, possibly at the least convenient moment, and you cannot stop it. The takeaway for employees: watch your balance yourself — old days can be quietly written off in the books, and you would be proving your right after the fact.
The full example: maternity and accumulated leave
An employee did not use her 2024 leave. In November 2025 she starts maternity leave, then parental leave. She returns in December 2026 and takes no leave afterwards. Entitlement — 4 weeks (20 days a year):
| Year | What happens | Accrued |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Works the whole year | 20 days |
| 2025 | Works January–October, maternity from November; maternity counts as time worked — the full year accrues | 20 days |
| 2026 | Parental leave January–November (does not count), works December; under 60 days in the year — only 1/12 per every 21 days worked | 1.67 days |
| 2027 | Works the whole year | 20 days |
| 2028 | Works the whole year | 20 days |
| Total by the end of 2028 | 81.67 days |
With a five-week entitlement, proportionally more — around 102 days.
What matters in this example:
- The 2024 and 2025 leave did not expire: maternity and parental leave prevented taking it, so the employer must grant it after her return.
- In December 2026 the obstacle ended — from then on the employer had to schedule the accumulated days. Failing that by 30 June 2027 — she could schedule them herself, in writing, 30 days ahead.
- The year 2026 added just 1.67 days — and had she worked fewer than 21 days that December, nothing at all.
- The accumulated liability is roughly four monthly salaries (81.67 days ÷ 21 working days a month). On termination it is paid in full, basic four weeks included.
The practical takeaway: do not let the balance grow. The moment someone returns from parental leave, schedule the old days — otherwise in a couple of years the company carries a liability worth several salaries, and the employee may leave for a four-month holiday on 30 days' notice.
Part-time work changes nothing in weeks — the working week is simply shorter.