“The principle guiding the worker’s right to vacation stipulates that it should be exercised to ensure physical and mental recovery, personal availability, family life integration, and social and cultural participation (Article 237, No. 4 of the Labor Code). This implies that during the vacation period, workers should generally not be contacted to fully enjoy their rights.
However, exceptions exist: due to imperative business needs, an employer may need to contact a worker to interrupt their vacation and require a return to work, although the worker is entitled to compensation for any losses incurred from not taking the vacation as planned (Article 243, No. 1 of the Labor Code). For example, they are entitled to reimbursement for a non-refundable or non-postponable trip. Such an interruption presumes an urgent necessity by the company that cannot be addressed by any other non-absent employee.
In turn, Article 199-A of the Labor Code, introduced in 2021, established an obligation for employers to refrain from contacting employees during rest periods, with exceptions for force majeure situations.
Since a rest period is any time that is not work time (Article 199 of the Labor Code), it can be validly interpreted that employers are also prohibited from contacting the employee by any means (e.g., phone, email, social media) during the vacation period, except in a force majeure situation necessitating contact. Violating this rule constitutes a serious infraction by the employer if they contact outside legally permissible circumstances.
In summary, the rule is no contact, allowing employees to enjoy their vacations fully disconnected, but they may be contacted if the issue at hand cannot reasonably wait for the employee’s return due to the urgency or potential serious harm it could cause the employer.”
You can view previous articles of the Vacation Special here.
