Legal News

Working not a precondition to right to paid holiday, court rules
Fri 27th Jan 12 - 15:39

The European Court of Justice says a worker’s right to paid holiday cannot be subject to a minimum period of actual work during the reference period used to calculate entitlement.

The court was ruling in the case of a woman who was off work for over a year as a result of a car crash, and whose employer refused to compensate her for the 22.5 days’ holiday she would have had if she had been working.

The employer said French law makes entitlement to paid annual leave conditional on working a minimum of ten days during the reference period.

The judges say that, while EU states may lay down conditions for the exercise and implementation of the right to paid annual leave in their domestic legislation, they are not entitled to make the existence of the right subject to preconditions.