French State Condemned for Failure to Transpose European Directive on Paid Leave for Ill Employees

The Court of Appeal considers that France should have transposed a European directive to this effect since 2005. The Court of Cassation had made the same observation in 2013.

The French state has been condemned for not correctly transposing 20-year-old European legislation which provides that employees on long-term illness acquire paid leave during their absence, according to a judgment of the Administrative Court of Appeal of Versailles .

In this judgment, dated July 17 and reported by

The echoes

mardi,

the court rules in favor of the CGT, Solidaires and FO unions

who believed that France had incorrectly transposed a 2003 European directive on working time.

According to the French labor code, an employee on long-term sick leave -of non-professional origin- is in fact only

not considered to be in a period of actual work

, unless there are more favorable provisions within the company. He is not entitled to the 2.5 working days of paid leave acquired per month of actual work with the same employer. However, this is opposed to the 2003 directive which guarantees all employees paid annual leave of at least four weeks.

No limit to the right to paid annual leave

And according to the case law of the European Court of Justice cited by the Court of Appeal, the directive “prevents Member States from unilaterally limiting the right to paid annual leave granted to all workers by applying a condition of opening this right which would have the effect of excluding certain workers”. In addition, it “opposes national provisions or practices which provide that the right to paid annual leave is subject to a minimum period of actual work during the reference period”

The Court of Appeal considers that

France should have correctly transposed this directive since 2005

and that the Court of Cassation had reminded him of this in 2013.

Employees could attack the state

“Such a transposition delay is

capable of incurring the State’s liability for compensation for non-pecuniary damage

suffered as a result by the employees represented by the applicant trade unions”, concludes the court which awards 10,000 euros to each of the three unions.

In a press release, the CGT welcomed the fact that with this decision, “employees on sick leave who have seen their rights to paid leave violated will have the right to attack the State to be compensated for their damage”.

“It would therefore be more relevant for the government to finally draw the consequences of this judgment by modifying the law. The multiple legislative texts to come or being examined by Parliament are all opportunities for this,” suggests the union.