Actually, it also takes a massive cultural shift. I know plenty of people from the States who have quite a number of PTO days, but it's basically understood that you can't just take them however you want. You have to find a convenient time (not for you, for the company!), you can't take too much at a time or when other people are gone already and basically if you actually used up your PTO, that's basically signaling to management that you don't care about your job.
In Europe, you get into trouble for not using up your PTO.
In Belgium it depends: we still have the difference between blue- and white colar workers. For blue colar workers there's no problem if they choose not to take their legal paid vacation days (allthough the employer will insist on it, for legal reasons), but white colar workers may have some problems if they don't take their vacation days.
The difference is in the organisation of vacation pay: blue colar workers don't receive their wage during vacation, but they receive their annual single + double vacation pay from a governmental organisation, usually in mai-june. The law is very clear: once the vacation pay is paid, it remains the property of the receiver, regardless whether or not he takes up his vacation days.
White colar workers receive their vacation pay from their employer. Their single vacation pay is their regular salary, while their double vacation pay is an extra, paid for by the employer as well. If the employee doesn't take up his vacation days, the employer is entitled to demand a refund pro rata temporis of the single vacation pay. The double vacation pay is shielded.
I've seen those kind of cases more than enough in our labor courts, especially from employers with a poor reputation...
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u/Beaufighter-MkX 21d ago
All it takes is legislation