Paid Annual Leave: Organization and Calculation of Leave Entitlements

With the arrival of summer, some of your employees may have contacted you to let you know of their wishes to leave on annual leave. Know that it is the employer's responsibility to set the departure date for employees' leave. However, the agreement of the employees and their staff representatives is necessary. You can either decide to close your company and inform employees of the date and duration of the closure, or organize departures on a rotating basis.
Please note that the duration of an employee's annual leave cannot, in principle, exceed 30 working days (working days).
To help you organize paid annual leave, here is a reminder of the main rules to follow.

1-Conditions for closing establishments during the period of paid annual leave

The Moroccan Labor Code, in articles 247 and 248, specifies the conditions for closing businesses during annual leave. The important points to remember are as follows:

• In the event of total or partial closure, the company must inform the labor inspector
• All employees must receive leave pay for the entire duration of the closure, regardless of the duration of work performed on the day of closure
• The governor may order the establishment of a rotation between companies located in his prefecture or province, to avoid the closure of companies belonging to the same branch of activity.

2- Period and organization of paid annual leave

It is the employer's responsibility to set the departure date for employees' leave, after consulting staff representatives. However, if you organize departures on a rotating basis, you must also consult those concerned, taking into account, when setting the order and date of departures:

• The employee's family situation
• Their seniority

Please also, as a precaution, take into account:

• The spouse's leave possibilities
• Any activities with other employers

Annual leave departure dates may, however, be either advanced or delayed. In this case, you must modify the leave register no later than the date initially planned for the employee's departure and also inform the labor inspectorate, by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt, of the changes made (Article 245 of the labor code). It should also be noted that the order of departure on leave must be communicated to any employee entitled to leave 30 days before the departure date. This departure order must also be displayed in a visible place usually frequented by employees.

3- The duration of paid annual leave

Calculating paid annual leave entitlements is simple. In practice, each employee who has worked six consecutive months in the same company is entitled to one and a half days of leave for each month worked. However, employees under 18 years of age are entitled to 2 days of leave per month worked. Unless, of course, more favorable provisions exist in the employment contract or collective agreement.

In the case of seniority exceeding 5 years, the duration of the leave is increased by one and a half days for each 5-year period of service, without exceeding 30 days (article 232 of the labor code).

Paid holidays and public holidays are not counted as leave days if they fall during the annual leave period.

4- Accumulation and splitting of annual leave

Annual leave may be split or accumulated over two consecutive years without the duration of the leave being split into a period of less than 12 working days including weekly rest days (article 240 of the labor code).
Note that a month of work corresponds to twenty-six working days (article 238 of the labor code). If only periods of actual work, in principle, entitle employees to paid leave, certain periods not worked also give entitlement to paid leave, such as leave taken for the previous year, periods of suspension of the contract for maternity, work accident or occupational illness.


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