With the Court of Appeal having delivered its verdict in NHS Leeds v Larner, we round up the key decisions that the Government will have to take into account when it drafts legislation to give effect to European Court of Justice case law on the relationship between holiday pay and long-term sick leave.
1. Stringer and others v HM Revenue and Customs sub nom Commissioners of Inland Revenue v Ainsworth and others; Schultz-Hoff v Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund (ECJ) The European Court of Justice held that the right to paid annual leave continues to accrue during sick leave and, on termination of the employment relationship, a worker who has been on sick leave and unable to take paid annual leave is entitled to a payment in lieu.
2. Pereda v Madrid Movilidad SA (ECJ) The European Court of Justice held that the Working Time Directive must be interpreted as precluding national provisions or collective agreements that deny a worker who is on sick leave during a period of scheduled annual leave the right to take the annual leave at a later time, even if this is outside the holiday year in which the annual leave was accrued.
3. Lyons v Mitie Security Ltd (EAT) The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that a worker who fails to comply with statutory or contractual notice requirements for taking holiday can lose annual leave at the end of the leave year if not taken. The right to take annual leave is not inalienable.
4. KHS AG v Schulte (ECJ) The European Court of Justice confirmed that the Working Time Directive does not require an unlimited accumulation of a worker's paid annual leave during a period of long-term sickness absence.
5. Dominguez v Centre Informatique du Centre Ouest Atlantique (ECJ) The European Court of Justice said that it is contrary to the Working Time Directive (03/88/EC) for national legislation to make entitlement to paid annual leave conditional on a worker having worked a minimum of 10 days for the same employer in the holiday year.
6. Neidel v Stadt Frankfurt am Main (ECJ) The European Court of Justice held that German legislation allowing for a carry-over period for untaken holiday of nine months, with the result that public servants forfeit their leave if it has not been taken within the period of nine months after the end of the leave year because of sickness, is unlawful.
7. ANGED v FASGA and others (ECJ) The European Court of Justice confirmed that a worker who is sick during a period of annual leave cannot be precluded from taking the holiday at a time other than that originally scheduled, irrespective of when the incapacity for work first arose.
8. NHS Leeds v Larner (CA) The Court of Appeal held that an NHS worker who was absent for the whole leave year and who did not submit any requests for annual leave during her absence was entitled to holiday pay on the termination of her employment.
