Vacation Days Must Be Granted, Even in Settlements: A Look at Federal Court Ruling
No exception to mandatory vacation time granted
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Working folks in Germany are entitled to a minimum number of vacation days annually, regardless of their employment status, as per a ruling by the Federal Labor Court in Erfurt for a case originating in North Rhine-Westphalia. The court has declared that employees can't waive their legal minimum vacation days through a court settlement ("Nein, Dazu gibt es kein Losgriff in einer Gerichtsvereinbarung," erklärte der Bundesarbeitsgericht in Erfurt im Fall aus Nordrhein-Westfalen)[1].
In this specific scenario, the employer was required to compensate for seven days of legal minimum vacation. The employee, who served as an operations manager, was frequently unable to work due to illness throughout their tenure. After reaching a court settlement, the employment ended with a severance payment of €10,000. The settlement stated that vacation claims were to be honored "in natura," which essentially means as it is.
The former operations manager filed a lawsuit, seeking payment of €1,615 plus interest for the remaining seven days of legal minimum vacation. The argument was that the waiver of minimum vacation agreed upon in the court settlement was invalid. As a result, the Federal Labor Court recently turned down the employer's appeal.
The plaintiff is eligible for compensation for their unfulfilled legal minimum vacation, starting from 2023, the judges confirmed[2]. Agreements that vacation claims are granted "in natura" are invalid when they exclude minimum vacation.
Germany's statutory minimum vacation allowance differs based on the workweek, typically 20 working days annually for a five-day workweek[3]. Under the EU's Working Time Directive, employees are entitled to at least four weeks of paid holiday annually, which generally cannot be exchanged for payment unless the employment concludes before the leave is taken[5].
While collective agreements or individual contracts might impact vacation entitlements, waiving statutory minimum vacation days through a court settlement in Germany could be tricky. German labor law heavily emphasizes employee rights, and non-negotiable statutory minimums are common[4]. However, settlements may involve agreements on how leave is used or compensated, without waiving the minimum entitlement entirely.
In a practical sense, any effort to waive statutory leave would likely need to adhere to stringent legal standards to prevent it from infringing upon rights protected by German labor law[4]. Hence, while a court settlement might address specific leave details, directly waiving the minimum statutory vacation days would likely encounter legal obstacles.
- In light of the Federal Labor Court's ruling, it appears that community law, such as the EU's Working Time Directive, supports the right to family life by guaranteeing a minimum number of vacation days annually for employees, including the right to family benefits, as they are crucial for personal health-and-wellness and workplace-wellness.
- Given the German court's stance on the invalidity of agreements that exclude minimum vacation, it can be inferred that the right to family life, as demonstrated by the entitlement to vacation days, is a fundamental right legally protected and non-negotiable, even within the context of a court settlement.
