Accrual Of Vacation Days During Sickness (Update)

In our newsletter of February 2010 we referred to a recent decision of the European Court of Justice on the accrual of holiday days during sickness. In this decision the Court ruled that, on the basis of a European directive, in respect of the accrual of vacation days no distinction can be made between healthy employees and employees that are unable to perform their duties due to sickness. We reported that Dutch law did, however, make such a distinction and was therefore in violation of the directive.

Furthermore, we pointed out that European directives may in principle only be invoked against the Dutch Government and not by Dutch employees against their employer. We concluded that only the Dutch legislator could take appropriate action by changing the relevant Dutch law.