EU: CJEU rules against trade unions in their dispute with the DIA and Twins Alimentación group over arrangements for specific personal leave periods

The case decided by the CJEU on 04 June (ruling for Case C-588/18) arises from a dispute between the CCOO Services Federations plus the Fetico & FESMC-UGT unions (commerce) and the retail chains DIA plus Twins Alimentación over the conditions for personal leave applications in cases of births, deaths, marriages, and residential moving as provided for in the collective agreement for the DIA and Twins Alimentación group and in application of the Workers’ Statute. The companies refused to recognize the right of employees to take such special leave when one of the relevant events occurred during weekly rest periods or during annual paid leave. The National High Court sought a preliminary ruling on the question if in such cases that it were not possible to postpone the entitlement to special paid leave over to a time other than that of those periods, entitlement to the latter would be nullified, since workers would have to devote the same periods to meeting the needs and obligations for which such special paid leave is provided. The National High Court turned to EU Community law, and thus to the CJEU for support in its conclusion, but without success. In its judgment, the CJEU held that: ‘Since the purpose of the paid special leave established by the provisions at issue in the main proceedings is solely to enable workers to take time off from work in order to meet certain specific needs or obligations that require their personal presence, that leave is inextricably linked to working time as such, and consequently workers will not have recourse to such leave during weekly rest periods or periods of paid annual leave.’ In other words, if the event that triggers those leave periods occurs during days of leave or rest, the employee is available to meet those obligations and therefore there is no justification for him/her to benefit from those specific days during a subsequent period of work.