On 06 November a CJEU ruling in two joint German cases applied EU Directive 2003/88 on working time, which runs counter to German legislation that leads to the loss of annual paid leave untaken by a worker prior to that worker’s death. The CJEU has ruled that in such situations an allowance in lieu should be paid to the deceased worker’s estate. Again on 06 November the CJEU handed down two other rulings, also vis-à-vis German legislation, in which it finds that EU law precludes a worker from automatically losing the days of paid annual leave and, consequently, his right to an allowance in lieu of the leave which is not taken, solely because he did not apply for leave before the employment relationship ended.
Allowance paid to heirs of deceased workers. Two widows turned to the courts because their spouses’ employers refused to pay an allowance in lieu of untaken annual leave. Although EU jurisprudence is clear on the issue of compensating untaken paid leave periods when the employment relationship is terminated, the complainants German appeals court turned to the CJEU to decide if this principle also applied in compensating a deceased worker by way of payments to the worker’s estate.
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