Penalties for Not Granting Vacation to Employees: What Changes Are Proposed

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has introduced a draft law on amendments and additions to the Labor Code of Armenia, proposing several changes regarding the regulations for granting vacation.

1. For the first year of employment, annual leave will be granted to employees only after completing 6 continuous months of employment in a given organization, despite existing regulations allowing leave to be granted typically after 6 months. As a result, it is now proposed to allow annual leave to be granted before this period, with mutual consent from the parties.

It is suggested to establish a requirement for employers to pay penalties if they do not grant vacation to an employee for 2.5 years or more, excluding certain cases specified by law.

2. The proposal also includes regulation for granting annual leave to employees who avoid or refuse to request their entitled annual leave or part of it after 2.5 or more years of continuous employment. In this case, it is intended to give the employer the right to determine the time period for granting annual leave personally, with the corresponding individual legal act adopted without the presence of the employee's request.

3. To avoid misunderstandings arising in practical legal applications, it is proposed to allow employees to maintain their right to annual leave even if their leave has not been granted within the deadlines and procedures established by the code.

4. At the employee's request, a possibility is provided to grant leave that is unpaid for a maximum of 30 days within a work year when an employee working on a part-time basis is preparing for a business trip from their primary workplace. Similar regulations are proposed for employees under a part-time employment contract.