THE FACTS
The French Employment Court was called upon to rule on the lawfulness of the refusal to allow certain workers to take several days of accrued and unused holiday leave due to prolonged absences from work due to illness. Similarly, the relevant allowance in lieu had been denied to those workers whose employment had ended. These claims were made within 15 months of the end of the one-year reference period during which the holiday entitlement arose.
The national court made a reference for a preliminary ruling to the European Court of Justice on three questions, listed below:
– the direct applicability in relations between private individuals of Article 7 of Directive 2003/88/EC on the organisation of working time;
– what is a reasonable carry-over period for the four weeks’ leave recognised by that directive, where the accrual period for leave is one year;
– is the application of an unlimited carry-over period in the absence of national legislation governing that period in line with European law.
THE DECISION OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE
The decision of the European Court of Justice of 9 November 2023, Case C-271/22, resolved the first question for a preliminary ruling in positive terms, starting from a detailed analysis of Article 7 of Directive 2003/88/EC, which, although in principle cannot be directly invoked in a dispute between private parties, specifies the fundamental right to an annual period of paid leave.
This provision must be read in conjunction with Article 31, paragraph 2, of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which provides for the right of every worker to paid annual leave.
Consequently, according to the Court, a worker may rely on the right to paid annual leave against his or her employer, and the fact that the employer is a private company is irrelevant.
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