Germany: Federal Labor Tribunal confirms that employees can only lose the right take leave periods if they are actually able to exercise the right

In a decision handed down on 19 February the Federal Labor Tribunal affirmed that employees’ right to annual (calendar year) paid leave could only expire at the end of the year if employers give employees prior notification of this specific right to paid leave as well as its expiry deadline, and only if employees have voluntarily not taken-up the leave period. This decision follows that of the CJEU from November 2018  (c.f. article No. 10883).
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Section 7.3, para. 1 of the Federal law on leave periods (BUrlG) intends for leave periods that are not assigned and not taken prior to the end of the calendar year to thus expire and the legislation does not then not allow for the periods to be carried over (by either employee or by employer), nor for leave not taken to be eligible for financial compensation, unless there are extraordinary circumstances.

In this case the employer had encouraged the complainant to take up the outstanding leave p

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