Annual leave
Article 7 of Council Directive 93/104/EC of 23 November 1993, concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time (as amended by Directive 2000/34 of 22 June 2000), ensures a period of paid annual leave of at least four weeks.
Unlike other requirements of daily and weekly rest periods (Articles 3 and 5), the Directive does not allow for any derogation from the requirement for an annual rest period. It is an absolute entitlement that cannot be reduced. Conditions for entitlement and granting are subject to national regulation. However, this cannot replace the minimum period of paid annual leave by an allowance in lieu (though there is provision for a transitional period (Article 18(1)(b)(ii)).
The Directive’s provision for paid annual leave was the subject of a decision of the European Court of Justice following a complaint against the UK (Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematographic and Theatre Union (BECTU) v. Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Case C-173/99, [2001] ECR I-4881). The decision was significant in bringing together the provisions in the Directive with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union 2000, which provides in Article 31(2): ‘Every worker has the right to… an annual period of paid leave.’
The UK legislation made entitlement to paid annual leave subject to a qualification period of 13 weeks’ employment. There is no such qualification in the Directive and a British trade union (BECTU) complained to the European Court of Justice that the UK Government’s legislation deprived many of the union’s members on short-term contracts of their right under EC law to paid annual leave. On 8 February 2001, Advocate General Tizzano delivered his advisory opinion upholding BECTU’s complaint, stating that the Community Charter of the Fundamental Social Rights of Workers provides ‘the most reliable and definitive confirmation of the fact that the right to paid annual leave constitutes a fundamental right’. In its judgement, the Court ruled against the UK, arguing that the Working Time Directive ‘does not allow a Member State to adopt national rules under which a worker does not begin to accrue rights to paid annual leave until he has completed a minimum period of 13 weeks’ uninterrupted employment with the same employer.’
See also: health and safety; working environment; working time.