Source: https://www.dittmar.fi/insight/finnish-legislation-on-annual-leave-in-line-with-eu-requirements/
Timestamp: 2020-01-22 06:00:20
Document Index: 643923388

Matched Legal Cases: ['CJEU ', 'CJEU ', 'CJEU ', 'CJEU ', 'CJEU ', 'CJEU ']

Court of Justice of the European Union: Finnish legislation on annual leave in line with EU requirements - Dittmar & Indrenius
(joined cases C‑609/17 and C‑610/17)
Dittmar & Indrenius > Insight > Court of Justice of the European Union: Finnish legislation on annual leave in line with EU requirements
On 19 November 2019, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice of the European Union (the ‘CJEU’) gave a significant judgement on the Finnish Labour Court’s two requests for a preliminary ruling. The requests concerned the right to postpone annual leave in accordance with the Directive 2003/88/EC (the ‘Working Time Directive’) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the ‘Charter’).
The Directive 2003/88/EC lays down the minimum safety and health requirements for working time. According to the Article 7(1) of the Directive, every worker is entitled to a paid annual leave of at least four weeks. The right to annual leave is also recognised as a fundamental right in Article 31(2) of the Charter. In earlier case law, the CJEU has consistently ruled that a worker who becomes sick before or during annual leave is entitled to reschedule the period of annual leave which coincides with sick leave.
The Finnish rules were contested by trade unions in legal proceedings brought before the Finnish Labour Court, where it was argued that the right to take annual leave at another time outside sick leave would extend to additional leave granted by Member States (or social partners exercising their freedom to conclude collective agreements). The case brought to the fore important constitutional questions regarding the applicability of the Charter to the power of Member States to adopt measures in a field governed by EU-law-based minimum requirements. In order to obtain guidance on the proper interpretation of EU law, the Labour Court referred the case to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling.
The CJEU ruled in favour of the employer side, as its conclusion was that neither the Working Time Directive nor the Charter mandate an entitlement to carry over annual leave exceeding the minimum period of four weeks. The CJEU highlighted especially the Directive’s character as minimum protection regulation. As for the Charter, the CJEU stated that the Finnish provisions in question fell outside the scope of the Charter, since they did not limit the minimum protections guaranteed to workers under the Working Time Directive and did not adversely affect the objectives of the Directive. Thus, the Finnish provisions were held to be in accordance with the requirements of EU law.
There are several pending disputes concerning the same question in Finnish courts. The judgement of the CJEU will affect the outcome of those disputes.
1 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.
6 Sep 2019 The new Working Hours Act will enter into force on 1 January 2020. The goal of the legislative reform is to modernise the reg...