Court: Dead workers have right to holidays (European Court of Justice)

The Local ^ | 12 Jun 2014 14:55 GMT+02:00

[Olog-hai]

Dead workers in Germany have a right to any annual leave which they’ve failed to claim at the time of their death, Europe’s top court ruled on Thursday.

In a case brought by a widow from North Rhine-Westphalia, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled she was entitled to money from her dead husband’s employer for the holiday he had failed to claim.

The dead man, named only as Mr. Bollacke, worked for the retailer K+K from August 1998 to November 2010, when he died. …

[Olog-hai]

Misleading headline. The “right” thereof seems to have to do with survivors claiming unused vacation pay.

[NYFriend]

I think this is true in th US too. The pay for accrued vacation days belongs to the worker, and I suspect it passes to the estate if the worker dies. At my job it falls under “terminal leave” which we occasionally have to explain to new people doesn’t usually have anything to do with death. Depending on leave rules, vacation days can be worth a lot.

[muir_redwoods]

I know of a teacher whose baby is due in late June. She wants her twelve weeks of maternity leave to begin in September. The union is backing her.

[Gay State Conservative]

In Massachusetts one routinely hears stories of government hacks who,after 40 years of sitting on their a$$es collecting obscene salaries,retire with a huge pension *and* a severance check for hundreds and hundreds of days of unused sick leave and vacation time.

My emploters have always had a policy which stated that once a vacation day was earned that day,or its salary equivalent,belonged to you.

[Vermont Lt]

The employee, or their heir have the right to collect monies earned or accrued.

This is not groundbreaking news.

Perhaps the UK is still climbing out of the Middle Ages.

[Vermont Lt]

At the bank I worked at you had to take at least two weeks in a row so your work could be audited while you were gone. That made for a pleasant trip! But you could also not carry forward more than 40 hours of accrued vacation time.

Sick time was accrued up to the amount of time it would take disability to kick in—but it was not payable upon your termination with the company.

Try explaining that to someone who could not make their way out of high school.

[kevkrom]

The employee, or their heir have the right to collect monies earned or accrued.

Which is why my last few employers limit employees to carrying forward a maximum of 80 hours of leave. If you're over 80 hours, you must either use some or take pay for the excess hours then and there, but you can't accumulate hundreds of hours for a single big payout.