Can my employer change my vacation dates?

Do you like to book your holidays well in advance? Be careful: your employer can very well change the dates of your paid holidays. But under certain conditions.

Paid leave is a right, taking it is an obligation, and enjoying it is a real satisfaction. But does your employer have the right to change your absence dates or not?

Paid holidays since 1936

Be careful not to lose them and to ask for them on time: since their appearance under the Popular Front in 1936, paid holidays have done much more than just become commonplace. They have changed the lives of all those who could finally take a well-deserved vacation.

But before taking them, in a company, you have to start by asking them. This is where the annual psychodrama of those who all want to leave at the same time begins. A real concern for the employer, except when the company closes its doors completely for three weeks, therefore forcing its employees to take their vacation at that precise moment.

Rights as well as duties

You are lucky enough to be able to choose when and how long to leave between July and August? But your boss still has to agree… Indeed, the Labor Code provides for the rights and duties of each person. And respect for the proper functioning of a company also comes into play when validating or not the taking of leave.

So, your employer has the right to set the dates of your leave as well as the order of departure of their employees. What is less well known is that they can also change the previously validated leave dates. Fortunately not at their discretion, but according to very specific conditions in terms of deadline, reasons and justification.

One month’s notice period

Therefore, your employer must inform you of a change in your holiday dates at least one month in advance. And this from the day the employee is informed that his holiday dates are changed. If this is the case you have no legal means to oppose this change. Provided, of course, that this change complies with company agreements or the collective agreement.

Please note that exceptional circumstances allow your employer to not respect this one-month deadline, provided that you provide reasons. In this case, he or she may cancel, postpone or bring forward your vacation dates, in the interest of the company. In the event of disagreement or even termination, it is up to the judges to decide whether these exceptional circumstances exist, as they are not in fact precisely defined by law.

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