Changing case law pertaining to leave entitlements –

One can rightfully state that the law pertaining to leave entitlements has been subject to radical change in the last couple of years – and relatively rarely in favor of employers. This paper presents the two most important “backtracking” decisions passed by the Ninth Senate of the German Federal Labor Court (FLC) in the last four years.

Entitlement to leave in the event of long-term illness

2009 saw the “big bang” when both the ECJ [1] and the FLC [2] held, in quick succession, that leave entitlements should no longer lapse on 31 March of the subsequent year in the event of long-term illness,...