Paid leave scheme and legal basis
There is a special leave scheme for the German construction industry all employers have to participate in. This leave scheme applies everywhere in Germany. So you are also obliged to participate in the scheme if you post commercial workers to construction sites in Germany.
The leave scheme works like this: Workers “save” their paid leave entitlements earned with each of their employers in the construction industry and take these entitlements with them to their next employer in the construction industry. Whenever they want to take leave, they can take all their saved paid leave days with their current employer.
For this system to work, all employers in the construction industry have to pay us fixed monthly contributions for their workers. These amounts are being used to finance their workers’ paid leave entitlements. This means that employers who ultimately grant leave do not face any financial disadvantages.
The construction industry is very different to other sectors in many respects:
- There is a constant change of workplace (construction sites).
- Work often has to be suspended in bad weather and winter.
That is why many construction workers change their employer once or several times a year. This results in a number of disadvantages for employers and their workers, some of which affect their paid leave entitlements.