Vacation Leave: An Employee Right, Conditioned On Employer Needs?

Vacation Leave by Agreement

The right of employees to vacation leave is one of the foremost entitlements in employment law, not just nationally, but also at EU level. The Court of Justice of the European Union has had ample opportunity to comment on this right’s importance in the context of the EU Organisation of Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC). In its judgements, the CJEU described the right of every worker to paid annual leave as ‘a particularly important principle of EU social law from which there may be no derogations’. So much so, the CJEU added, that said right is expressly laid down in Article 31(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, entitling every worker to an annual period of paid leave.