The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has held that workers who are deterred from taking leave because they believe or have been led to believe they are not entitled to paid holiday must be given the right to carry over any untaken leave.

Further, the worker is entitled to be paid on termination for any periods of annual leave that have accrued during employment, without limitation. In the present case the ECJ said that the Claimant should be able to claim for the 13 years in which he was employed and prevented from taking paid annual leave.

The decision is extremely important to individuals who think they are working in a bogus self-employment situation, e.g. the Uber drivers. If a person is told they are self-employed and they aren’t entitled to paid holiday, then if they are found to be a worker later they can claim all of the statutory holiday pay they weren’t granted.

A full briefing will be issued shortly.