Unpaid vacation

Unpaid leave is time off from work for an employee. The employee does not perform any work during this time and is therefore not paid.

Unpaid leave: legal entitlement

The so-called secondary obligations remain in place. These include, for example, the employee’s duty of loyalty and the employer’s duty of care, as well as protection against dismissal.

It is important to know that there is no statutory entitlement to unpaid leave in Germany. For this reason, companies do not always have to approve an application for unpaid leave.

Reasons for unpaid leave

There may be operational reasons that simply speak against this. These reasons include, for example, staff shortages or projects with tight deadlines.

However, the following reasons justify unpaid leave:

• Parental leave
• Exercise of certain honorary offices such as THW, fire department, DRK, works council, examination boards
• Carers of their own children or close relatives
• an unexpected emergency situation such as flooding or fire
• Accident or sudden illness of a family member

The duration of unpaid leave depends, among other things, on the reason. It ranges from a few days to 2 years.

Taking unpaid leave & the insurance

In the case of unpaid leave, the employment relationship continues, but social insurance continues to be paid for a maximum of one month.

Employees must therefore ask themselves the question: Can I even afford this and what insurance do I have to pay?

Health insurance

The good news is that statutory insurance cover applies during the first month of unpaid leave. However, the employer will deregister the employee from social insurance on the last day of the month at the latest.

As a result, the colleague must now take out their own health insurance. The employee has the option of choosing private health insurance or voluntary statutory health insurance.

The employer therefore no longer pays contributions from the second month of unpaid leave.

Pension insurance

Employees must also pay their own pension insurance contributions from the second month onwards. If the unpaid leave ends, the company must re-register the employee with the social security system.