garden leave

noun · Freistellung von der Arbeitspflicht

Garden leave is the paid Freistellung von der Arbeitspflicht, typically during the notice period; the calque Gartenurlaub has no home in German employment law. The decisive German split sits beside the word: widerruflich or unwiderruflich; only the irrevocable release can carry the remaining holiday with it, and pay runs on in either form.

Which translation, when

Begriff und Kalkthe word: the English garden leave describes the employee released from the duty to work, usually on notice, while the contract and the pay continue; the German term is the Freistellung von der Arbeitspflicht, and the machine-made Gartenurlaub names nothing in German law; this release from work is a different institute from the liability release the indemnity entry holds under the same German headword.

widerruflich oder unwiderruflichthe split: a revocable release lets the employer call the employee back at any time, an exercise of the direction right within reasonable discretion, and precisely because of that it cannot serve the holiday entitlement; the federal labour court holds that holiday needs the certainty of a final release, BAG 5 AZR 578/18; the irrevocable release ends the duty to work for good, and only there can the remaining holiday be set off, and only where the employer says so unmistakably, the practice formula being unter Anrechnung des Resturlaubs.

Vergütung und Pflichtenthe frame: the release leaves the contract standing, so the remuneration continues and the ancillary duties survive, loyalty and the contractual bar on competing while the employment lasts among them, though where the employer reserves the set-off of other earnings, the case law reads that reservation as a waiver of the in-term bar, BAG 5 AZR 703/05; what happens after the end is the business of the post-contractual restrictive covenant, treated in its own entry.

Why

Garden leave has no one-word German twin, and the working translation is the Freistellung von der Arbeitspflicht: the employee is released from the duty to work, typically for the run of the notice period, while the employment relationship and the pay continue. The calque Gartenurlaub, which machine output produces with confidence, names nothing in German employment law, and the bare word Freistellung needs care of its own, because the same German headword also carries the liability release of indemnify, a different institute with its own entry. Inside German practice the decisive line runs between the revocable and the irrevocable release. The widerrufliche Freistellung keeps the employer’s hand on the switch, the employee can be called back at any time, an exercise of the direction right within reasonable discretion, and precisely because the return stays possible, the time cannot count as holiday: the federal labour court requires the certainty of a final release for the recreation purpose of leave, BAG, Urteil vom 29.1.2019, 5 AZR 578/18. The unwiderrufliche Freistellung ends the duty to work for good, and only it can carry the remaining holiday and accrued overtime with it, and even then only where the employer says so unmistakably, the practice formula being freigestellt unter Anrechnung des Resturlaubs; a silent or ambiguous release leaves the holiday claim alive and payable at the end. Through both forms the contract itself stands: remuneration continues, and the ancillary duties survive, including the bar on competing that binds while the employment lasts, though a reservation of earnings set-off is read by the case law as waiving that in-term bar, BAG 5 AZR 703/05; the post-contractual world of the restrictive covenant, with its compensation rules, belongs to its own entry. So the safe rendering names the Freistellung von der Arbeitspflicht, states whether it is widerruflich or unwiderruflich, and lets the holiday travel only with the irrevocable form.

Typical mistakes

Gartenurlaub names nothing in German employment law, the institute is the Freistellung von der Arbeitspflicht.
A revocable release cannot serve the holiday entitlement, so setting off Resturlaub against a widerrufliche Freistellung fails, and an ambiguous release leaves the holiday payable.
The release leaves the contract and its duties standing, so treating garden leave as the end of loyalty and of the in-term bar on competing misreads the frame.

What matters

A termination letter or settlement releasing the employee for the notice period: the translation should say Freistellung von der Arbeitspflicht, mark it widerruflich or unwiderruflich, and attach the holiday set-off only to the irrevocable form, unter Anrechnung des Resturlaubs.

Authority

BAG, Urt. v. 29.1.2019, 5 AZR 578/18

What the machine misses

A machine translation of garden leave produces Gartenurlaub, a word with no home in German employment law, or a bare Freistellung that hides the decisive split: the release from the duty to work during notice is widerruflich or unwiderruflich, and only the irrevocable form can carry the remaining holiday with it, so the calque erases exactly the distinction the German reader must see.

See what the machine does with this clause →

Examples

the employee is placed on garden leave	der Arbeitnehmer wird von der Arbeitspflicht freigestellt
irrevocably released from the duty to work	unwiderruflich von der Arbeitspflicht freigestellt
with continued payment of remuneration	unter Fortzahlung der Vergütung
setting off the remaining holiday	unter Anrechnung des Resturlaubs