An employee who cannot use all of his annual paid leave days before resigning also has the right to receive financial compensation in the public sector. This was determined by the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which accepted the appeal of a former employee of the Municipality of Copertino in the province of Lecce.
Italian law states that “public sector employees are in no case entitled to financial allowances in lieu of unused annual paid leave days at the termination of the employment relationship,” the EU Court noted in a note. This rule was challenged by a former employee of the Municipality of Copertino (only the initials are mentioned in the sentence, BU), who worked for the administration as a management trainer for nearly 24 years before resigning to access early retirement. The former employee requested compensation for the 79 days of annual leave he did not use, but the Municipality opposed this.
The matter went to the Lecce Court and from there to the EU Court. European judges ruled in the appellant’s favor, a decision that can now be reversed by other civil servants. According to the EU Court, Italian law on the subject is contrary to European law: “The right of workers to annual paid leave cannot be based on purely economic considerations, such as the limitation of public safety, including the possibility of its replacement by financial allowance. “Expense”, the Luxembourg judges write. This Therefore, the Municipality of Copertino will have to pay the former administrative inspector.
However, EU law does not prevent the loss of this right if the employee deliberately decides to avoid vacation, even though the employer invites him to rest and informs him about the risk of losing those days. Therefore, if the employer cannot show that it took “all due diligence” to enable the employee to go on holiday, the failure to pay the allowance should be considered to be in breach of both the Working Time Directive and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. of the EU.
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Source: Today IT
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
