There is generally some confusion as to the exact number of vacation days an employee is entitled to. This is due to the fact that the wording of the law uses the term “days” and not “work days”
According to the directives of this law, all employees are entitled to paid annual vacation. Vacation days are included in the basic labor laws and cannot be waived.
Special employees, as defined by additions to the annual vacation law, may be entitled to enlarged allotment of vacation days under certain conditions. For example: Employees who deal with radiation that comply with the conditions in the addition to the law are entitled to 21 days annually, Nurses, Doctors, and others who come in contact with sick people, under certain conditions outlined in the addition to law are entitled to 42 day annually. But in these cases the vacation days cannot be accumulated beyond the year, they need to be utilized.
The vacation days must be consecutive, unless both employer and employee agree, then at least one week must be consecutive and the rest can be sporadic. This is probably the reason for the wording of the law to begin with.
Vacation days are not allocated in one shot, neither at the beginning of the year nor at the end. The net annual allotment (the allotment less the weekly rest days) are divided into 12 and each month that the employee works, entitles him to the monthly allocation. Of course the percentage of the employee’s position is also a factor, so if an employee was employed at a 50% position, he would be entitled to half the vacation allocation that a full-time positioned employee would be entitled to and so forth.
Another important thing is that in many work places there is an enlarged annual vacation allotment. This is usually due to a work agreement. Special attention should be given when an employee is entitled to a larger allotment than the law. The law provides certain protective restrictions which are meant to ensure
If an employee has acrued vacation days that haven’t been utilized, some employers erase them at year’s end. others allow acrual up to a maximum number of days.
Both of these are legal, provided the employer notifies the employees in advance.
In addition, the balance at the start of the month, monthly acrual, used days and new balance for the end of the month must all be shown on the payslip.
Employers must also allow employees to take vacation, but can dictate when it is convenient for them that the employee take vacation.
Tenure of 1 -4 years = 14 vacation days *
Tenure of 5 years = 16 vacation days *
Tenure of 6 years = 18 vacation days *
Tenure of 7 years = 21 vacation days *
Tenure of 8 years = 22 vacation days *
Tenure of 9 years = 23 vacation days *
Tenure of 10 years = 24 vacation days *
Tenure of 11 years = 25 vacation days *
Tenure of 12 years = 26 vacation days *
Tenure of 13 years = 27 vacation days *
Tenure of 14 years and up = 28 vacation days *
* The allotment of vacation days in the table above includes one weekly rest day for each seven days of vacation. For Jewish employees, this would be Shabbat for an employee who is employed 6 days a week and Friday and Shabbat for an employee who is employed 5 days a week.
According to this, for example, an employee who is employed 5 days per week would be entitled annually to 10 paid vacation days, whereas an employee who is employed 6 days per week would be entitled annually to 12 paid vacation days.
