How can an employee benefit from unpaid leave?

The employee may take a leave of absence for personal needs (e.g. to look after his children or to travel) or for work (e.g. to set up a company). This leave is called leave without pay.

Leave without pay is not provided for in the legislation.

The employee must ask his employer to be able to benefit from this leave.

There is no formality for applying for unpaid leave.

The Labor Code does not specify a template for sending leave without pay requests.

However, it is better to write a written request to the attention of the employer.

The written record will serve as evidence in case of dispute (letter withRAR: titleContent or e-mail, for example).

The application may include all of the following conditions:

• Planned start and end dates of unpaid leave
• Possibility to renew the initial leave without pay
• Conditions for return to the company upon completion of leave without pay.

There is no notice period between the date of the request for leave without pay to the employer and the actual desired date of departure on leave.

The employee is not obliged to inform the employer of the reason for the request for leave without pay.

There is no regulated minimum or maximum duration of leave without pay.

The employee agrees with the employer on the duration of the leave if the leave has been accepted.

Yes, the employer is not obliged to grant leave without pay.

The employer does not have to justify the reason for its refusal.

However, if the collective agreement or a company collective agreement provides for leave without pay, which the employer must respect.

In the absence of treaty provisions, the agreement of the employer is necessary.

No, leave without pay is not remunerated.

The employee does not receive a salary for the duration of the unpaid leave.

However, leave without pay may be paid under the time savings account (CET), subject to conditions.

The employment contract is suspended during unpaid leave.

However, the employment contract is not terminated during the period of leave.

Employees are free to devote their unpaid leave time to activities of their choice (personal or professional activities)

However, the employee must comply with a so-called loyalty.

An employee may not engage in any activity that could compete with that of his employer during his leave without pay.

The employer may terminate the employee's employment contract in the event of a breach of this duty of loyalty or in the event of the impossibility of maintaining the contract for a reason other than leaving on unpaid leave.

At the end of the leave without pay, the employee returns to his previous job (or a similar job with at least equivalent remuneration).

However, it is possible that no position is available upon the employee's return. In this case, the employer may also propose other equivalent positions to the employee.