argomento: News del mese - Diritto Internazionale e Comunitario

Articoli Correlati: Right to leave - employee - imprescribability

On 22 September 2022, in case C-120/21, the E.U. Court of Justice ruled that the right to remuneration for the vacation accrued not taken by the worker must be considered not subject to prescription if the employer has not facilitated, or allowed the itself, to be able to enjoy it. In the case brought to the European Court, a German worker following the termination of the employment relationship with his employer company in 2017, requested the payment of an indemnity relating to 101 days of accumulated vacation never taken between the years 2013 and 2017. Faced with the refusal of the same company to refund the compensation invoked on the basis of the objection raised in the trial in terms of prescription of the credit law, the competent German Federal Court had suspended the trial requesting the intervention of the Supreme Court of European Justice which paid attention to the employer’s burdens deriving above all from the superior position in the contractual relationship with the worker. The Supreme Court highlighted that the recognition of the prescription of the credit claimed by the worker in a context where it is ascertained the lack of facilitation, or willingness, of the employer to guarantee the use of previous days of vacation accrued and not taken, would correspond to an illegitimate enrichment to the detriment of the same worker by the employer, with consequent violation of article 31 par. 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.