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22 July 2010 / Ian Smith
Issue: 7427 / Categories: Features , Employment
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Working time?

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Ian Smith tackles the thorny issue of holidays & accrual rights

The decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Zentralarbeitsreibsrat der Tirols v Land Tirol: C-486/08 [2010] IRLR 631, though formally taken under the directives on part-time and fixed-term working, involves a point of significance to working time law on holidays; the point is a narrow one, applying to one specific factual possibility, but could lead to one of the regulations on domestic working time having to be read in the light of it.

Legality

The case concerned three queries as to the legality of certain Austrian labour laws on hospital workers. The third concerned holiday entitlements where a worker moves from full-time to part-time working, part of the way through the holiday year. The Austrian provision stated that in such a case, if the worker had untaken leave from the full-time working it could be pro-rated down to the part-time level if then taken while working part-time. The ECJ held that this offended the protection given by the Part-time Worker Directive 99/23

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