2. Minimum leave for all workers, subject to no conditions

Article 7(1) states that the right to paid annual leave is granted to every worker. The Court has stated that ‘every worker’ includes workers who are absent from work on sick leave, whether short or long term, regardless of whether they have in fact worked in the course of the leave year (231). The Court has ruled on the particular case of workers who were unlawfully dismissed and then reinstated in their employment, in accordance with national law, following the annulment of the dismissal by a decision of a court. It held that those workers are entitled to paid annual leave for the period between the date of the dismissal and that of the reinstatement in their employment, despite the fact that, during that period, they did not actually carry out work for the employer (232). The Court stated that the fact that a worker is deprived of the opportunity to work owing to dismissal that was subsequently held to be unlawful is, as a rule, not foreseeable and beyond the worker’s control. That situation is the consequence of the employer’s actions, and an employer that does not allow a worker to exercise his or her right to paid annual leave must bear the consequences. Thus, the period between the date of the unlawful dismissal and the date of the worker’s reinstatement must be treated as a period of actual work for the purpose of determining the rights to paid annual leave. However, where, during that period, the worker obtained other employment, he or she can claim the entitlement to paid annual leave corresponding to the period of work with the new employer only from that employer. The Directive provides that paid annual leave is granted ‘in accordance with the conditions for entitlement to, and granting of, such leave laid down by national legislation and/or practice’. Thus, it is for the Member States to lay down, in their domestic legislation, conditions for the exercise and implementation of the right to paid annual leave, by prescribing the specific circumstances in which workers may exercise the right (233). Nevertheless, the Court has held that the Directive precludes Member States from unilaterally limiting the entitlement to paid annual leave conferred on all workers by applying preconditions which would in practice prevent certain workers from benefiting from it (234). For example, the Court has held that Member States may not impose on workers the condition of a period of 13 weeks of uninterrupted employment with the same employer before accruing leave (235). Similarly, Member States cannot impose conditions that make it impossible for certain workers to exercise the right to paid annual leave (236). Having in mind that the right to paid annual leave enshrined in Article 7 of the Directive is also a fundamental right affirmed in Article 31(2) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the Court has expressly stated that limitations to that right have to comply with the strict conditions laid down in Article 52(1) of the Charter and, in particular, the essential content of that right (237). Member States nevertheless have some scope to regulate the way in which the right to paid annual leave may be exercised. This could include, for example, ‘the planning of holiday periods, the obligation, if any, for the worker to give his employer advance notice of when he intends to take leave, the requirement that a minimum period of employment must be completed before leave can be taken, the criteria governing the pro-rata calculation of annual leave entitlement where the employment relationship is of less than one year, and so forth’ (238).

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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.