Judgment of the Court of Justice in Case C-206/22

PRESS RELEASE No 189/23 Luxembourg, 14 December 2023 Judgment of the Court in Case C-206/22 | Sparkasse Südpfalz Covid-19 pandemic: EU law does not require that an employee who is placed under quarantine during paid annual leave be able to carry over that leave Quarantine is not comparable to an illness An employee arranged with his employer, the Südpfalz savings bank (Germany), to take paid annual leave from 3 to 11 December 2020. Because he had been in contact with a person who had tested positive for Covid-19, the competent German authority placed that employee under quarantine during that same period. He then requested the savings bank to carry over those days of leave. After the savings bank refused to do so, he brought an action before the labour court having jurisdiction, asserting that that refusal is contrary to EU law, namely the directive on working time 1. According to that court, national law requires the employer to carry over the days of leave granted only where workers can demonstrate incapacity for work occurring during the period of leave. However, the German courts have ruled that mere quarantine does not amount to incapacity for work. The labour court has therefore asked the Court of Justice whether EU law requires that the leave days coinciding with the quarantine be carried over. The Court of Justice rules that EU law does not require that the days of paid annual leave during which the worker is not sick but in quarantine on...