The European Court of Justice ("ECJ") issued a
decision in November 2018 stating that employees do not lose their
right to receive compensation for their unused vacation days even
if they did not apply to take them.
German courts turned to the ECJ in order to receive guidance on
vacation time rights under EU law when in two cases the widows of
deceased employees' requested compensation for their
husbands' untaken vacation days.
On one hand, according to the ECJ, if an employee's
employment relationship is ended or terminated, the employee does
not lose automatically his/her vacation days or his/her right for
compensation even if he/she did not take the paid annual leave.
However, if the employer proves that it offered to the employee an
opportunity to take his/her annual leave, the employee may lose
this right. The ECJ has stated that this right also applies in case
of the death of an employee. In this latter case, it is the
employee's heirs who would be entitled
