sec_1__9__para__7

The Directive does not affect the Member States’ right to apply provisions that would be more favourable to the protection of the safety and health of workers (223), including granting workers more than four weeks of paid leave per year. In such cases, the Member State may establish different conditions for entitlement to and granting of the additional leave (224) without being required, in that regard, to comply with the protective rules which the Court has laid down in respect of that minimum period (225). For example, the Court has held that, when deciding to grant workers’ rights to paid annual leave beyond that minimum period of four weeks, Member States are not obliged to grant an allowance in lieu (see below under point VII.B) for untaken leave entitlements at the end of the employment relationship which exceed four weeks (226). Similarly, the Court has held that Member States are free to grant days of paid annual leave which exceed the minimum period of four weeks, and yet exclude the carry-over of those days of leave on the grounds of illness (227). In cases of short-time working arrangement where the pro rata temporis principle applies to the accrual of right, the Court has also held that Member States can give workers the right to more paid annual leave than that guaranteed by the Directive, irrespective of their working time having been reduced on account of short-time working (228).

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-25 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.