We understand that while you’re here, you’ll require some necessary breaks for things like vacations, family leave, scheduled holidays and just regular days away. We all need them! So, when you’re ready to book a break for any reason, this section will cover just about everything you need to know.
First, we have to just say it: We absolutely encourage you to take time off! As noted below, German law also includes provisions to ensure that you use your entitled leave. While we enjoy our time with you, it’s important to balance your work and personal lives. We’re here to support you in that regard however we can.
Though we like to stay busy at InterWorks, there are select company-observed holidays where InterWorks offices are closed and all full-time InterWorks employees have automatic time off with pay.
Bank holidays falling on a weekend are always moved to a later date, generally the following Monday.
Vacation time and personal days all fall under Paid Time Off (PTO) at InterWorks. Your PTO pay is based on your pay rate in effect when your PTO is used and does not include bonuses or other special forms of compensation.
Your PTO account is managed and tracked in our Time Entry System in MOAS, where you can make requests and keep track of your available PTO. Please remember that there are busy times here at IW and your request for PTO may need to be adjusted given work circumstances and customer demand. It’s always best to make PTO requests as far in advance as possible. We are generally flexible with PTO arrangements, and you should never hesitate to ask about time off when you need it. Taking holiday of more than two weeks will only be approved in exceptional circumstances.
Your leave entitlement is 26 days per year based on a five-day work week. After two years of continuous employment at the start of the next January or July, the Annual Leave Allowance will increase by one day up to a maximum of 30 days of leave per year.
For 24 December (Heiligabend) and 31 December (Silvester), only a half-day of PTO is required to enjoy a full free day as it is usual in Germany.
The entire leave is to be taken within the current calendar year. A transfer of the leave to the next calendar year is permitted for a maximum of 5 days and expires after 31 March of the following year if it has not been taken before then.
We want to be as flexible and accommodating as possible. You can go into the negative of PTO hours, if needed. Just keep in mind, if you leave InterWorks with a negative PTO accrued balance, you will need to reimburse the company per the following section,
Accrued and unused PTO will be prorated from the 1st of January and paid on your final paycheck. If the prorated PTO balance is negative, you will be expected to reimburse the company for the amount equal to your negative PTO balance. This can be handled by deducting from your final paycheck or can be paid via a personal check addressed to InterWorks.
Notify your supervisor of your sickness via email. When you do this, please CC Ops and hr@interworks.de. After three days of illness, a doctor must be consulted to issue a sick note. Until then, a visit to the doctor is voluntary. With the new eAU (elektronische Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung) process, you no longer need to send your certification of incapacity for work to the employer. If you are sick on holiday, please notify the employer of your illness, and the sick days will be credited to your holiday.
In any case, don’t forget to put a time off request in MOAS, type: Sick Leave.
We allow for up to three days of bereavement leave due to the death of a family member or close friend before using PTO. Please discuss this with HR and your manager. You may request the bereavement leave in MOAS in the same way that you request PTO.
Busy times happen as part of our industry, we’re all used to this to one extent or another. However, we believe that repeatedly working late hours or through the weekends should not be an everyday or every week occurrence. When our business commitments require such efforts, we’ve created our Time Off in Lieu (TOIL) system to help even things out a bit as you meet those critical deadlines.
TOIL is not a 1:1 hour exchange program or any version of regular flextime. It is not designed as a method to adjust your personal working hours, e.g., choosing to work ten hours on Thursday in order to leave early on Friday. We aren’t trying to balance out one day against another.
TOIL is not designed to compensate for travel time to and from our offices and/or client locations. We understand that travel can be demanding, and we work to manage this in a variety of other ways, but not through the use of TOIL.
TOIL is there to help those forced by project or client demands to work an inordinate amount of time and at odd hours to meet those demands.
If you believe your day or week qualifies to be handled within the TOIL system, speak with your manager in order to work out the details.
Life happens, and there are several instances where traditional PTO structures don’t quite apply. Beyond the federally mandated provisions, we’ve tried to cover the big life events that require a different set of leave guidelines.
Mothers have maternity protection six weeks before and eight weeks after birth. In special cases, like premature birth, birth of twins, etc., the maternity protection extends from 8 to 12 weeks. During the maternity protection period, the statutory health insurance pays maternity allowance (13 euros per calendar day). From the beginning of pregnancy through to the end of maternity protection, mothers are protected from dismissal. We adhere to the requirements of the Maternity Protection Act (Mutterschutzgesetz).
Parental leave is an unpaid break from working life for mothers and fathers who care for and raise their child themselves. As an employee, you can request parental leave from your employer. You have to send this request seven weeks before the calculated date of birth. During parental leave, your employer must release you from work for up to three years per child. During this time, you do not have to work and do not receive a salary. To compensate, you can apply for Child Benefit/Parental Allowance (Kindergeld) which is given by the government:
You can take your parental leave before your child’s third birthday. You can also take part of it in the period between the third and the eighth birthday. This means you can take your parental leave when you and your child really need it.
During parental leave, you are protected from dismissal in a special way. After parental leave, you can return to your old job in most cases.
All rules and explanations from the government can be found here: https://handbookgermany.de/en/live/parental-leave.html and https://www.bmfsfj.de/bmfsfj/service/publikationen/arbeitgeberleitfaden-zum-mutterschutz/121860 and https://www.bmfsfj.de/bmfsfj/meta/en/families.
Parents with statutory health insurance can apply for 15 working days of child sickness benefit per statutory insured child for 2025, and single parents can apply for 30 days. If there are several children, each parent is entitled to no more than 35 days, and single parents are entitled to no more than 70 working days. To receive Kinderkrankengeld, contact your insurer and hr@.
Don’t forget to put a time off request in MOAS, type: Child Sick Leave.
Further information can be found on the website of the German Federal Ministry of Health.
Employees are entitled to time off from work to care for a close relative. Caregiver leave can be requested for a maximum of six months. During this time, the caregiver is released from work, usually without pay. Partial leave in the form of a reduction or distribution of working hours is also possible. Please discuss with hr@ and your manager as necessary.
Please provide as advance notice of your intent to use paid parental leave to your manager and directly to HR. Also, please give as much notice as possible as to when you will return to work.
An unpaid personal leave of absence may be granted upon request to regular full- and part-time employees for important pressing personal needs, at the discretion of the CEO. Unpaid personal leave is limited to one instance per year.
Requests for unpaid personal leave must be made in writing to your manager with a copy to HR@, indicating the reason and the length of leave. All unpaid leave must be approved by the CEO.