Short leave (klein verlet) is paid absence for family events and civic duties. The law grants 2 days for the employee's own wedding, 10 days on the death of a partner or child and 3 days on the death of a parent. You pay the normal wage. Your joint committee (JC) can grant more, never less.
Short leave for family events: the statutory table
Short leave is set out in the Royal Decree of 28 August 1963. The employee chooses the days within a fixed period.
| Event | Days | When to take them |
|---|---|---|
| Employee's own wedding | 2 | In the week of the wedding or the week after |
| Wedding of a child, brother, sister, brother- or sister-in-law, parent, parent-in-law or grandchild | 1 | The day of the wedding |
| Ordination or entry into a convent of a child, brother, sister, brother- or sister-in-law | 1 | The day of the ceremony |
| Death of the partner or a child | 10 | 3 between death and funeral, 7 within the year |
| Death of a parent, parent-in-law or step-parent | 3 | Between death and funeral |
| Death of a brother, sister, brother- or sister-in-law, (great-)grandparent, (great-)grandchild, son- or daughter-in-law, also of the partner, living with the employee | 2 | Between death and funeral |
| Same, not living with the employee | 1 | The day of the funeral |
| Solemn communion or secular coming-of-age ceremony of a child | 1 | The day of the ceremony, or the working day before or after if it falls on a rest day |
| Jury service, witness in court, appearance before the labour court | Max. 5 | The time needed |
| Polling station assessor | The time needed | Election day |
A legal cohabitant counts as a spouse. For a death, a de facto partner also counts, as does a child in long-term foster care. Birth leave is no longer short leave; it is a separate type of leave.
Short leave for a death in the family: how to count the days
Partner or child. Of the 10 days, the employee takes 3 between the day of death and the day of the funeral, and the other 7 within the year after the death. At their request and with your agreement, they may depart from those periods.
Worked example. Ahmet is a warehouse worker at a wholesaler, works 7.6 hours a day and earns € 16 an hour. His wife dies on Wednesday 4 November 2026; the funeral is on Tuesday 10 November.
- Around the funeral he takes Thursday 5, Monday 9 and Tuesday 10 November.
- He takes the other seven days in the following weeks, by 4 November 2027 at the latest.
- You pay 7.6 x € 16 = € 121.60 per day, so € 1,216 for ten days.
Parent or parent-in-law. The 3 days fall between death and funeral. If that period has only two working days, they can only take the third day later if you agree.
Grandparent, brother or sister who lived elsewhere. That is one day, the day of the funeral. If the funeral is on a Saturday and the employee does not work Saturdays, they lose that day, unless you agree to grant it at another time.
Short leave for a wedding and for moving house
For their own wedding, the employee chooses 2 days in the week of the wedding or the week after. If they marry on a Saturday, they can take the Friday before and the Monday after, for example. For the wedding of a child, parent, brother or sister, it is one day: the day of the wedding itself. If it falls on a day they do not work, such as a Saturday in a five-day week, there is no paid day: the law does not let that day move.
Moving house is not on the statutory list. If your employees do get a moving day, it comes from a sector agreement, a company agreement or your work rules. Without such a rule, the employee takes a day of annual leave or asks for unpaid leave.
Short leave by joint committee
Sectors may grant more than the law. The best-known example for SMEs is the auxiliary joint committee for white-collar employees.
| Event | Statutory | JC 200 (white-collar) |
|---|---|---|
| Employee's own wedding | 2 days | 3 days |
| Death of partner or child | 10 days | 12 days |
| Death of father or mother | 3 days | 5 days |
The extra bereavement days in JC 200 apply since 1 January 2026. Everything about that sector is in our guide to JC 200.
Other sectors have their own agreements on short leave too. In cleaning (JC 121), an employee gets 3 days for their own wedding since 1 January 2026. In hospitality (JC 302), a blue-collar worker gets 4 days on the death of a parent, parent-in-law or step-parent, to be chosen within 30 days of the death. In construction (JC 124), a sector agreement gives a blue-collar worker 4 days between the death and the funeral of their partner, where the law gives 3 in that period. For road haulage (JC 140.03), we found no scheme of its own in the collective agreement database of the Federal Public Service Employment. The statutory table is therefore a minimum: always check the agreements of your committee, any company agreement and your work rules. To find out which committee applies to you, read our explainer on the joint committee.
Is short leave paid? How to book it
Yes. The employee keeps their normal pay, paid by you, without having to make up the hours. A white-collar employee on a fixed monthly salary simply receives their salary. A blue-collar worker gets their hourly wage times the hours they would have worked that day.
- Notification. The employee notifies you in advance, or as soon as possible if that is not possible. Without notification, you may refuse the pay.
- Purpose. They use the leave for what it is meant for. Ask for reasonable proof, such as a death notice or a summons, and put that in your work rules.
- Part-timers. Only the days that coincide with their normal working days count.
- Payroll. In the DmfA, you declare short leave under working time code 1, together with days worked, with ordinary NSSO contributions.
Mistakes we often see
- Granting ten bereavement days for the death of a parent. The law gives 3; ten applies to a partner or child.
- Forgetting the sector agreement. In JC 200, a white-collar employee gets more days than the law, and cleaning, construction and hospitality have their own rules as well.
- Booking short leave as annual leave. The employee then loses a holiday day and you risk a pay claim.
- No rule on notification and proof in the work rules. Then every dispute about a missed notification or missing proof becomes one word against another.
A public holiday that falls on a Sunday is not short leave but a replacement public holiday.
What Business Centrum does for you
For every request we check what short leave the law and your joint committee grant, book the days correctly in payroll and watch the guaranteed salary if an employee falls ill after bereavement leave, together with Acerta. We follow up your rules and leave balances through our leave and absence service.