Annual leave in Kosovo: what the law says, with worked examples

Most disputes about holiday in Kosovo come down to three questions: how many days a person gets, how many they have right now, and what happens to days they didn't take. The Law on Labour (No. 03/L-212) answers all three. Here is what it says, and how it plays out for real people.

The entitlement: at least four weeks

Every employee is entitled to paid annual leave of at least four weeks per calendar year. For someone on a five-day week that is 20 working days. Public holidays are not counted as annual leave — they sit on top — and neither are days the person is off sick.

Four weeks is the floor, not the ceiling. Collective agreements, internal regulations and individual contracts can give more, and many companies in Prishtina competing for engineers and agents do. Whatever the contract says, the rules below still apply to how it builds up and carries over.

Accrual: one twelfth for every month worked

This is the rule that catches most new employers out. The law gives leave proportionally — 1/12 of the annual entitlement for each month of work. Someone who joined on 20 July has not earned 20 days by August; they have earned about a month's worth.

With a 20-day entitlement that is 1.67 days per month. Kosovo practice is to count whole days, so after one full month the balance is 1 day, after two months 3 days, after six months 10 days, and so on. A request for a week off in the second month should be refused — or granted as unpaid, or as an advance the company chooses to give — because the days simply don't exist yet.

The law also contains an older rule for people employed for the first time (or returning after a break of more than five years): they become entitled to annual leave after six months of continuous work. In practice most employers apply the proportional 1/12 rule from day one rather than making a first-time employee wait half a year, and that is what we recommend — it is simpler, kinder, and never gives less than the law requires.

Three examples

Person	Started	Checked on	Full months	Days available
Arta, 20 days a year	20 July 2026	27 August 2026	1	1
Blerim, 20 days a year	1 February 2026	27 August 2026	6	10
Dita, 24 days a year (contract)	15 January 2024	27 August 2026	—	24 for the year, minus days already taken

Arta's pro-rata entitlement for the whole of 2026 is 5 months × 1.67 = 8 days, not 20. Blerim will reach his full 20 only in December. Dita is past her first year, so the full 24 days are hers for the year — but they were still earned month by month, which matters if she leaves in, say, April.

Try any combination yourself with our free holiday entitlement calculator — it applies exactly these rules.

Taking it: two parts, and a 30 June deadline

Annual leave can be split. The law lets it be taken in two parts, with the first part normally taken within the leave year. Whatever is left over can be carried into the following year and must be used by 30 June. After that date the days are gone unless the employer chooses to be more generous.

That deadline is worth putting in the calendar. Every January, list who is carrying days and remind them — and their managers — that June is the cut-off. A wallchart that shows the carried-over balance separately from the current year's makes this trivial.

Leaving the company

Annual leave cannot be waived, and it cannot be replaced by money while the employment continues. When someone leaves, the days they earned but did not take are paid out with the final salary — earned, again, on the 1/12 basis. Someone leaving on 30 April with a 20-day entitlement and no days taken is owed roughly 6–7 days' pay. Someone who took more than they had earned by their leaving date has been overpaid, and most contracts allow that to be deducted.

What good administration looks like

Record start dates accurately. Accrual is calculated from them; a wrong date is a wrong balance all year.
Show people their balance — accrued so far, not the annual number. Most arguments disappear when the employee can see "you have 3 days, the next one arrives on 20 October".
Approve against the accrued balance, not the annual entitlement. If you choose to allow advances, record them as advances.
Track carry-over separately with the 30 June expiry, and tell people in January.
Write any extra you give above the law into the contract or internal regulation, so it is a rule, not a favour that becomes a dispute later.

Staffvelo does all of this automatically: the Kosovo rules are the default for Kosovo employees, balances accrue monthly, requests that exceed the accrued balance are refused with the reason, carried-over days expire on 30 June, and any manual adjustment has to carry a written explanation. If your policy is more generous than the law, an admin changes the numbers once in Settings → Leave and the whole company follows.

This article summarises the Law on Labour as generally applied and is not legal advice. Article numbering and details can change; check the current text or a local adviser for your specific situation.

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