Leave not taken

Public service: new information requirements to avoid loss of annual leave

Publié le 14 août 2026 - Public Service / (Prime Minister)

Where a public official has been unable to take all or part of his annual leave, in particular because of interruptions in work linked to his parental responsibilities or for health reasons, he shall be entitled to the automatic carry-over of those days. The right to information of public officials benefiting from this postponement has been strengthened since 13 August. Public Service tell you more.

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Image 1Crédits: Drazen - stock.adobe.com

As a general rule, annual leave granted to public officials must be taken between 1er January and December 31 of the year in question.

In some situations, public servants (civil servants and contract staff) are automatically postponed their remaining annual leave for a period of 15 months. This is the case when they have not been able to take all or part of these days off due to:

Since August 13, 2026, an employer administration must provide, to a public official who has not been able to take all or part of his annual leave for one of these reasons, the following 2 information:

  • the number of days of annual leave carried over ;
  • the date until which such days of leave may be taken.

This information must be provided to the public official:

  • within one month after the date of resumption of his duties, if the postponement of the annual leave is caused by leave for health reasons or related to his parental or family responsibilities;
  • before 31 January of the following year, if the postponement of annual leave is the result of reasons relating to operational requirements.

The communication procedure used by the employer administration to fulfill this obligation of information must make it possible to ascertain the date on which the public official was able to become aware of this information.

The 15-month carry-over period to take the remaining annual leave begins, as a rule, on the day on which the public official has received the two pieces of information to be issued by the employer.

Warning  

A specific mechanism is provided for public servants whose leave for health reasons or related to parental or family responsibilities reaches a duration of at least one year at the end of the year for which the annual leave days are due (for example, for the annual leave days due for the year 2026, these are public servants whose leave for health reasons or related to parental or family responsibilities will reach a duration of one year or more on 31 December 2026).

For those staff members, the 15-month carry-over period to take the remaining annual leave starts at the end of the year for which those leave days are due (for example, that 15-month carry-over period will start for the staff members concerned on 31 December 2026, as regards the annual leave days due for the year 2026).

Then, when these agents resume their duties, if the 15-month carry-over period has not already expired, it is suspended until they have received the 2 mandatory information (the number of days of annual leave carried over, and the date until which these days of leave can be taken).

On 13 August, another reporting obligation came into force, concerning public officials who received a compensatory allowance at the end of their employment relationship, as they had not been able to take all their annual leave before leaving. They must now be informed by their employer's administration of the number of unused or deferred annual leave days for which compensation is payable.

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