The European Court of Justice has overturned a decision by the German courts and ruled in a case involving a German widow that holiday benefits are still valid after death.
The case concerned a widow in Germany whose husband had been off work sick for eight months before he died. The woman was claiming for 140.5 days’ worth of lost holiday pay she said was due to her late husband, which added up to €16,000 (£13,000).
Relying on national laws, a German court ruled against her claim, saying that when a worker dies, their contract of employment dies with them, so any holiday entitlement ends, but the ECJ disagreed, saying that while the employment relationship is terminated by the death of the worker, that didn’t mean that benefits accrued before death should not be paid.
In their ruling, the judges sought to clarify the Working Time Directive that governs hours of work and holidays throughout the EU and it is the second time in recent weeks that the ECJ has overruled a judgement made by a member state.
Last month the court ruled that holiday pay should include lost commission in the case of a British worker who took his employers to an employment tribunal after they refused to pay him his average commission while he was on holiday.
In his case, the judges found that not paying him commission while he was on holiday would mean that he might be discouraged from exercising his right to annual leave, which was not the intention of the Working Time Directive legislation.
In the German case, the legal argument is more clear cut, as holiday entitlements give either a right to take holiday or, if the contract terminates, the right to be paid for any holiday not taken, so the widow was as entitled to claim for it as she would have been if there were wages outstanding.