Loss of vacation entitlement pursuant to article 3 Vacation Ordinance
Every employee is entitled to vacation when he/she works. On the one hand he/she accrues vacation days, and the other hand the employer must give him/her the opportunity to actually take them. During vacation, the employee retains his/her right to salary. In accordance with the laws in Aruba, the entitlement to vacation lapses if an employee has not worked for at least six months due to illness or accident. The (outdated) underlying idea of the legislator was that an employee who is unfit for work for more than six months can already rest sufficiently so that the employee does not need to accrue additional vacation days. This is different from the situation in the Netherlands where an employee who is ill accrues, in principle, the same number of statutory vacation days as if he/she had not been ill. Also, if an employee has been away from work for at least six weeks in order to comply with legal obligations, the vacation entitlement lapses. What many employers do not know is that in the event of absence from work without permission and without lawful reason, the employee loses his/her vacation entitlement to a corresponding portion of his/her vacation. In doing so, part of a day is even counted as a whole day. So, for example, if the employee does not come to work for half a workday without permission and lawful reason then he/she is not only not entitled to salary but also loses one vacation day.
