Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2014:1755
Date: 2014-06-12
Language of the case: German
Court formation: First Chamber
Subject matter: Principles, objectives and tasks of the Treaties;Social Policy
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary — Judgment of the Court (First Chamber), 12 June 2014 1. Social policy — Protection of the safety and health of workers — Organisation of working time — Right to paid annual — Particularly important principle of European Union social law — Limits (European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/88, Art. 7(2); Council Directive 93/104) 2. Social policy — Protection of the safety and health of workers — Organisation of working time — Right to paid annual — Allowance in lieu of leave outstanding paid on termination of the employment relationship — National legislation refusing that allowance in the event of sick leave during the leave year — Not permissible (European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/88, Art. 7(2)) 3. Social policy — Protection of the safety and health of workers — Organisation of working time — Right to paid annual — Allowance in lieu of leave outstanding paid on termination of the employment relationship — National legislation providing for the extinction of the right to a compensatory allowance in the event of the worker’s death — Not permissible — Receipt of the allowance independent of a prior application by the interested party (European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/88, Art. 7) 1. See the text of the decision. (see paras 15, 16) 2. See the text of the decision. (see paras 17, 18) 3. Article 7 of Directive 2003/88 concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time must be interpreted as precluding national legislation or practice, which provide that the entitlement to paid annual leave is lost without conferring entitlement to an allowance in lieu of leave outstanding, where the employment relationship is terminated by the death of the worker. Receipt of such an allowance is not to be dependent on a prior application by the interested party. First, the entitlement to paid annual leave constitutes only one of two aspects of an essential principle of EU social law which also includes the entitlement to a payment when the employment relationship has ended. Second, receipt of financial compensation if the employment relationship has ended by reason of the worker’s death is essential to ensure the effectiveness of the entitlement to paid annual leave granted to the worker under Directive 2003/88. Indeed, if the obligation to pay annual leave were to cease with the end of the employment relationship because of the worker’s death, the consequence of that circumstance would be an unintended occurrence, beyond the control of both the worker and the employer, retroactively leading to a total loss of the entitlement to paid annual leave itself, as affirmed in Article 7 of Directive 2003/88. Moreover, since Article 7(2) of Directive 2003/88 does not impose any condition for entitlement to an allowance in lieu other than that relating to the fact that the employment relationship has ended, receipt of such an allowance should not be made subject to the existence of a prior application for that purpose. (see paras 20, 23-25, 27, 29, 30, operative part)