Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2012:693
Date: 2012-11-08
Language of the case: German
Court formation: Fifth Chamber
Subject matter: Principles, objectives and tasks of the Treaties;Social Policy;Fundamental rights;Charter of Fundamental Rights
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Fifth Chamber), 8 November 2012 1. Social policy — Protection of the safety and health of workers — Organisation of working time — Right to paid annual leave — Principle of European Union social law of particular importance (Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Art. 31(2); European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/88, Art. 7(1)) 2. Social policy — Framework Agreement on part-time work concluded by the ETUC, UNICE and CEEP — Directive 97/81 — Organisation of working time — Directive 2003/88 — Right to paid annual leave — Rule of pro rata temporis — Reduction of working time under a social plan agreed between an undertaking and its works council — Calculation of the right to paid annual leave according to the rule of pro rata temporis — Admissibility (Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, Art. 31(2); European Parliament and Council Directive 2003/88, Art. 7(1); Council Directive 97/81, as amended by Directive 98/23, Annex, Clause 4, para. 2) 1. See the text of the decision. (see para. 22) 2. Article 31(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and Article 7(1) of Directive 2003/88 concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time must be interpreted as meaning that they do not preclude national legislation or practice, such as a social plan agreed between an undertaking and its works council, under which the paid annual leave of a worker on short-time working is calculated according to the rule of pro rata temporis. Workers on short-time working have indeed, from a formal point of view, a full-time employment contract. However, for the duration of short-time working, the reciprocal obligations of the employee and the employer as regards work and salary are suspended on the basis of the short-time working, or completely eliminated. It follows that workers on short-time working must be qualified as ‘temporary part-time workers’, since their situation is de facto comparable to that of part-time workers, and that the rule of pro rata temporis in Clause 4(2) of the Framework Agreement on part-time work concluded by UNICE, CEEP and the ETUC is applicable to their right to paid annual leave. (see paras 32, 36, operative part)