According to the current legal situation, vacation entitlement can be reduced for times when employees are on short-time work. However, this does not apply to vacation pay. A reduction is only possible in relation to the proportion of contractual additional vacation and only with appropriate agreement. The following article gives a brief overview of the topic:

REDUCTION OF VACATION ENTITLEMENT

According to the case law of European Court of Justice (ECJ) The entitlement to both statutory and contractual additional leave can be reduced proportionately for times in which employees were on short-time work. However, the ECJ has so far only made it clear that such reduction options are compatible with European law (in particular Article 7 of Directive 2003/88/EC) are compatible. It is very doubtful whether the vacation entitlement can be reduced without any additional agreement regarding the possibility of reducing vacation.Automatically" entry. It remains to be seen how the Federal Labor Court will position itself on this issue. In practice, the following applies: a reduction should be expressly agreed!

REDUCTION IN HOLIDAY PAY 

However, the vacation pay for the statutory minimum vacation can not be shortened. Reductions in earnings that occur as a result of short-time work are also not taken into account when calculating holiday pay (cf. § 11 Paragraph 1, Sentence 3 BUrlG). However, a reduction can be made for the contractual additional vacation, provided that the contracting parties have effectively agreed on this.

CONCLUSION

It may therefore make sense for employers to make appropriate agreements about the possible reductions when introducing short-time work (e.g. through a company agreement) or to rely on corresponding agreements Right sides to inform.