The European Court of Justice has ruled that the estate of a deceased employee is entitled to a payment in lieu of untaken statutory annual leave under the Working Time Directive.

The Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC) (the Directive) states that workers in the EU must be entitled to at least four weeks’ holiday each year.  The case concerned a worker in Germany who had accrued but untaken annual leave entitlement at the time of his death. His widow brought a claim in the German courts seeking his unpaid holiday pay under the Directive.

The ECJ held that the Directive precludes national legislation from providing that workers’ entitlement to paid annual leave is lost when they die.

The full case report can be found here.