The heirs of a dead worker may claim financial compensation for leave that the person did not take whether from a public or private employers, says European Court of Justice (ECJ) Advocate General Yves Bot in conclusions published on Tuesday 29 May (combined cases C-569/16 and C-570/16).
Two German women asked their dead husbands’ former employers, one in the public sector and one in the private sector to provide financial compensation for the annual leave not taken by their spouses before they died. Their requests were rejected.
The two cases were sent to the German federal labour court, which asked the ECJ whether financial compensation for leave that wasn’t taken could be part of estate duty and thus demanded from an heir following a worker’s death.
In the Bollacke case of June 2014 (case C-118/13), the European judge said that a regulation like the current German rules whereby annual leave expires without giving the right after a worker dies to financial compensation for leave that wasn’t taken contravenes EU Directive 2003/88/EC on working time (see EUROPE 11099).
In his conclusions, Bot doesn’t want to return to the Bollacke case law, considering that this ruling takes good account of the inheritance side of the matter. He therefore proposes that an heir may demand compensation for leave that wasn’t taken.
While such an interpretation is unproblematic for a dispute between an heir and a public body, things are more controversial for a dispute between an heir and a private employer, since there isn’t a directive that can be directly cited for a private individual.
The right to paid annual leave is a fundamental social right under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which the judge feels can be called upon directly in dispute between individuals. An heir should therefore also be able, says Bot, to demand compensation from a private employer for leave that was not taken. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)