Options for unpaid leave with German companies

I do not have enough holidays left but I would like to return to the UK for a 5 day course. The course has nothing to do with work and is in a completly different field of work.

Is it possible in Germany to ask/get unpaid leave and has anyone ever done this?

Thanks

Of course. But you need to ask your boss, not us.

I normally handle those situations with overtime.

thanks, so its not particularly uncommon/impossible to have?

Unfortunatly we don't have overtime where I work.

This topic came up in a meeting the other day.

Certainly for us the answer was not 'of course' as there are possible insurance implications. We never got a definitive answer.

As Pas says it is not so easy. Your contract probably has a clause in it saying that holiday is for you to rest in and rest is what you should do. Your employer does have the right to get annoyed if you use your holiday to work, study or whatever, if you do that without their permission. So, as Pas says, it depends...

I would just be totally honest with them, and explain what and why , and if it isn´t possible to have a couple of extra days off....you might even suggest using up some of next years´holiday days....?

yea robinson I think that may be the line i am going to use if the initial unpaid one gets a disaproving look!

Honesty works if your employer is relaxed about things but this situation could easily backfire horribly if your boss is an arse. Just be a bit careful what you say, stick to general stuff about getting the time off, don't say too much about what you're doing. Taking holiday from next year's entitlement may work if your boss is relaxed but again won't fly in big German companies because of the possible accounting implications behind it.

And seeing as you work in Germany, this is highly likely.

Did you use all your holidays for 2008? Did you save some for the Christmas break? If you really have no holidays left, you might have a problem to take some from next year because if your company closes at Christmas time, and many do for at least a few days, you will be forced then also to take days from 2009 holidays.

there is something called "Bildungsurlaub" you can claim as an employee, usually 5 paid days in a year, but the education holiday has to have something to do with professional education or political education. not sure if this applies to you... check here for more info:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bildungsurlaub
I know, it is only WIKIPEDIA, but pretty straight forward in this area.
Cheerio

no i have 9 days for christmas which I really need to go home as Christmas falls on good dates this year...being off from 12th December to 5th January you only need 9 days off.

also kind of along these lines: The course I am doing is in a different industry. It will cost me about 1000 Euros to do as well as say 300 euros to fly there and back. Could I claim this on the tax at the end of the year as "weiterbildung" basically furthering my self or my education? Is there a chance I can claim this whole expense...say 1300 Euro back?

@friedbergdvah
yes, unpaid leave is usually possible, however the policy differs between companies, so go ask your HR Dept.

thanks darkknight and everyone, don't suppose anyone knows the answer to my question about claiming this course back on my tax form?

Not really sure, but give it a try!
- if you use a tax advisor to do your returns here they should know!

cool will do, dont normally use one but may do for this as could be quite costly (2,000 euros) which may be too much? no idea how it works

Goto Hilo and get the Info. for the office in Unterschleißheim. Yearly cost is around 200 Eur. But its based on how much you make. If you wind up paying them 2k Eur, then you must be making 200k Eur a year or something

since German tax laws are the most complex and complicated in the world, using a tax advisor will bring you a number of benefits and would be strongly recommended anyway...
Potentially you could claims this as "Werbungskosten" but this is exactly what the TA will know. There are a couple of them advertising here on Toytown, Thomas Zitzelsberger from Expattax comes with the most recommendations as far as I know from TT-thread and the experience of my own clients who often also work with him...

Cheerio

How the hell do you figure that? I see the 25th, 26th and 1st as holidays. That makes 12 days exclusive (as in, you still have to work the 12th and the 5th, so it's really from the 13th to the 4th of Januar if you count weekends)