On Wednesday 29 November, the European court of justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg ruled that workers are entitled to paid leave and can claim compensation if they are not allowed to take their holidays. The ruling follows a long-running legal challenge involving a UK window salesman, who had been paid entirely on commission and his contract described him as self-employed.
The case is one of a series that have gone to the Luxembourg court to establish whether businesses operating in the ‘gig economy’ are depriving employees of benefits to which they should be entitled by reclassifying workers as self-employed. In its judgment on Wednesday morning, the ECJ said: “A worker must be able to carry over and accumulate unexercised rights to paid annual leave when an employer does not put that worker in a position in which he is able to exercise his right to paid annual leave.”
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