Article 7 of Directive 2003/88/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 November 2003 concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time and of Article 31(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, must be interpreted as precluding national legislation such as that at issue in the main proceedings, under which, where the employment relationship is terminated by the death of the worker, the right to paid annual leave acquired under those provisions and not taken by the worker before his death lapses without being able to give rise to a right to an allowance in lieu of that leave which is transferable to the employee’s legal heirs by inheritance.

The loss of a worker’s acquired right to paid annual leave or his corresponding right to payment of an allowance in lieu of leave not taken upon termination of the employment relationship, without the worker having actually had the opportunity to exercise that right to paid annual leave, would undermine the very substance of that right (see, to that effect, judgment of 19 September 2013, Review of Commission v Strack, C‑579/12 RX-II, EU:C:2013:570, paragraph 32).

Thus, receipt of financial compensation if the employment relationship is terminated by reason of the worker’s death is essential to ensure the effectiveness of the entitlement to paid annual leave granted to the worker (see, to that effect, judgment of 12 June 2014, Bollacke, C‑118/13, EU:C:2014:1755, paragraph 24).

In that context, it is important, finally, to recall that the Court has already held that the expression ‘paid annual leave’ in Article 7(1) of Directive 2003/88, which should be given the same meaning as that of ‘annual period of paid leave’ in Article 31(2) of the Charter, means that, for the duration of annual leave within the meaning of those provisions, remuneration must be maintained and, in other words, workers must receive their normal remuneration for that period of rest (see, to that effect, judgment of 15 September 2011, Williams and Others, C‑155/10, EU:C:2011:588, paragraphs 18 and 19).

As was recalled in paragraph 39 of the present judgment, the right to annual leave constitutes only one of two aspects of the right to paid annual leave as an essential principle of EU social law reflected in Article 7 of Directive 93/104 and Article 7 of Directive 2003/88, now expressly enshrined as a fundamental right in Article 31(2) of the Charter. As well as an entitlement to a payment, that fundamental right also includes, as a right which is consubstantial with the right to ‘paid’ annual leave, the right to an allowance in lieu of annual leave not taken upon termination of the employment relationship.

In that regard, limitations may be imposed on that right only under the strict conditions laid down in Article 52(1) of the Charter and, in particular, of the essential content of that right. Thus, Member States may not derogate from the rule laid down in Article 7 of Directive 2003/88, read in the light of Article 31(2) of the Charter, that the right to paid annual leave acquired cannot be lost at the end of the leave year and/or of a carry-over period fixed by national law, when the worker has been unable to take his leave (see, to that effect, judgment of 29 November 2017, King, C‑214/16, EU:C:2017:914, paragraph 56).

(See paras. 49, 50, 57-59, 61, 63, operative part 1)