The Government of the Republic of Serbia passed the Conclusion 05 no. 131-1206/2021 published in the Official Gazette of RS no. 11/2021, whereby it recommended employers to acknowledge more rights to certain categories of employees with regard to the use of annual leave for 2019 and 2020 compared to the rights guaranteed under the Labour Law.

These employees include those who did not use their annual leave due to:

• The nature of work in extraordinary circumstances caused by epidemic of COVID-19 disease,
• Temporary inability to work caused by their COVID-19 disease,
• Isolation/house isolation in accordance with law.

Unused leave for 2020

The Government recommended the employers to enable such employees to start and use their unused leave for 2020 in 2021 or to use the first part of minimum two uninterrupted working weeks until 31 December 2021, inclusive, and to use the rest until 30 June 2022, inclusive.

Unused leave for 2019

Employers are recommended to enable the employees who did not use a part of their 2019 leave in accordance with the Government Conclusion 05 no. 53-3041/2020 of 6 April 2020 to use that part of leave no later than 30 June 2021 and before the use of their 2020 annual leave.

In this manner, the Government extended its recommendation given in Conclusion 05 no. 131-10296/2020 of 15 December 2020, which referred only to social protection institutions and health protection institutions in the system of health protection in the Republic of Serbia and Ministry of Health, which are under the obligation of mandatory work during the epidemic of COVID-19 disease, so as to cover all employers in the territory of the Republic of Serbia.

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