You have been working for months. You want to go home and see your family, or you need a few days for something important. You ask your employer about leave — and suddenly nothing is clear. How many days do you have? Can you choose the dates? What if the employer says no?
Annual leave sounds simple — until you actually try to use it. Then the questions start.
What you are entitled to
According to the 2026 Foreign Workers’ Rights Handbook, for the first five years with the same employer, you are entitled to 16 vacation days per year. That number increases after five years.
But there is a detail that trips up a lot of workers: how many days you actually get on paper depends on your schedule. If you work six days a week, 16 days means one thing. If you work five days a week, the calculation looks different on paper even though the entitlement is the same. Always compare the employer’s count with the rules that apply to your actual schedule — not just the number you heard from a friend whose schedule may be different.
Annual leave is not the same as sick leave or public holidays
This difference matters more than most workers expect. Annual leave, sick leave, and paid public holidays are three separate buckets. Money and days from one bucket cannot be moved to another without a clear reason.
If you were sick for two days, those should come from your sick leave balance. If a public holiday fell during that week, that is a separate category again. Mixing them is one of the most common ways workers quietly lose leave they were entitled to.
How to request leave properly
Request important leave in writing — even a short WhatsApp message is enough: the dates you want, and a request for confirmation. Then save both the message you sent and the answer you received.
Many disputes happen because the worker remembers a verbal “yes” and the employer remembers a “maybe.” A written message removes that ambiguity.
Before booking flights, buy the ticket only after receiving a clear confirmation. “It should be fine” is not a confirmation.
One question workers always ask: who actually decides when you go? In Israel, the employer has the right to set the timing of annual leave within reason. But they cannot keep refusing. If the same request keeps getting pushed back without a real explanation, that is worth raising with the Ombudsman.
What happens to unused annual leave when a job ends
This is a question many workers forget to ask — and it can cost real money.
When employment ends, any unused annual leave that you were entitled to should generally be included in your final payment. The employer does not simply keep those days because you did not take them during the year.
Before you agree to any final settlement payment, check whether unused leave was included. If you are not sure how to calculate it, this is a specific moment to seek advice.
💬 Leaving a job and not sure whether your unused leave was included in the final payment? Use Ask an Expert on LankaConnect before you sign any final document.
Where disputes usually begin
Most leave problems come from the same place: nobody kept a record.
The worker takes single days off across the year and forgets to count them. The employer marks some absences as leave without telling the worker. By the end of the year, both sides remember a different balance — and neither has proof.
The solution is simple: keep your own leave calendar. It can be a notebook, a phone note, or a spreadsheet. Write the dates you requested, the dates approved, and the days actually deducted on the payslip. Take five minutes each month to update it.
Simple checklist
- Know your annual leave entitlement based on your schedule and seniority
- Keep a personal record of every leave day requested, approved, and taken
- Request leave in writing and save the confirmation
- Never book travel before receiving clear written approval
- Check that payslip deductions match the days you actually took
- At the end of employment, verify that unused leave was included in final payment
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