EU court: ‘Civil servant always compensated for unused vacation due to resignation’

Brussels – Civil service workers are always entitled to enjoy their scheduled leave. Budgetary constraints and accounting requirements do not justify not paying untaken leave. If a worker does not take all the paid annual leave before resigning, he or she will be entitled to financial compensation, the European Court of Justice ruled in a labor law judgment affecting the EU, but even more so Italy.

The case that came to the attention of the Luxembourg court concerns a civil servant who worked for the municipality of Copertino (Lecce). Having resigned to access early retirement, the employee requested the payment of a financial allowance for the 79 days of paid annual leave not taken during his employment. Payment that did not take place since Italy’s law does not provide for such a possibility.

The national law will have to change, as the Court of Justice of the EU confirms that under the 2003 working hours directive, “EU law precludes national legislation that prohibits the payment to a worker of an allowance in lieu of financial compensation for paid annual leave days not taken” if that worker voluntarily ends his or her employment relationship.

There is more: the Luxembourg court also enshrines the right and duty to enjoy rest days. “The right of workers to paid annual leave, including its possible replacement by an allowance, cannot depend on purely economic considerations, such as the containment of public expenditure.” Vacation plans cannot, therefore, shore up accounts in disarray: a clarification that applies to the entire public sector, not just the municipal one.