The European Court of Justice has ruled in a procedure about statute-barred holiday entitlements for employees. This means that Germany is now also bound by the regulation. What does that mean now?
The entitlement to paid vacation does not expire after three years if the employer has not indicated that the vacation days must be taken. In addition, the entitlement does not expire in the event of such a missing notice even if an employee becomes disabled later in the year, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in Luxembourg on Thursday. It was about cases from Germany. (Az. C-120/21 and others)
Statute of limitations on vacation: the accountant had sued
In the first case, an accountant complained who had not taken all vacation days for years because of the high workload. After her dismissal, she now wants financial compensation from her former employer for the days not taken. The entitlement to the vacation days has not expired because the employer did not cooperate – i.e. did not ask the accountant to take the vacation and did not point out that the days could otherwise expire.
According to German law, however, the claim could possibly become statute-barred after three years. The Federal Labor Court wanted to know from the ECJ whether this would be compatible with EU law – which the ECJ now denied. It is true that the employer has a legitimate interest in not being confronted with requests for vacation or financial compensation for entitlements that have arisen long before. If he did not ask the employee to take vacation, he put himself in this situation. The ECJ explained that the Federal Labor Court must now examine whether this was the case with the accountant.
Leave does not expire in the event of incapacity to work
The other cases involved a former hospital employee and a former freight driver. They have been reduced or unable to work due to illness or disability and believe that they are still entitled to paid vacation days from the last year of work – their employers, on the other hand, believe that the entitlements have expired after 15 months.
Here, too, the Federal Labor Court referred the question to the ECJ. He now explained that the holiday entitlements do not expire if they arose before the incapacity to work and the employer did not prompt the employee to do so in good time or made it possible to take holiday.
The Federal Supreme Court is now bound by European legal interpretation
An EU state could decide that the holiday entitlement for employees who have been unable to work for several years expires after a transfer period of 15 months. In these two cases, however, it would be about the years in which the plaintiffs first became unable to work. The ECJ explained that there was no risk of holiday entitlements being accumulated indefinitely.
The Federal Labor Court in Erfurt has already announced that it wants to decide on the cases of the accountant and the clinic employee in December. It is bound by the legal interpretation of the ECJ.
Source: Stern
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