28.8.2010   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 234/24

1.

Must Article 7(1) of Directive 2003/88/EC (1) be interpreted as precluding national provisions or practices which make entitlement to paid annual leave conditional on a minimum of ten days’ (or one month’s) actual work during the reference period?

2.

If the answer to the first question is in the affirmative, does Article 7 of Directive 2003/88/EC, which imposes a specific obligation on an employer in so far as it creates entitlement to paid leave for a worker who is absent on health grounds for a period of one year or more, require a national court hearing proceedings between individuals to disregard a conflicting national provision which makes entitlement to paid annual leave conditional on at least ten days’ actual work during the reference year?

3.

Since Article 7 of Directive 2003/88/EC does not distinguish between workers according to whether their absence from work during the reference period is due to a work-related accident, an occupational disease, an accident on the journey to or from work or a non-occupational disease, are workers entitled, under that directive, to paid leave of the same length whatever the reason for their absence on health grounds, or must that directive be interpreted as not precluding the length of paid leave differing according to the reason for the worker’s absence, since national law provides in certain circumstances for the length of paid annual leave to exceed the minimum of four weeks provided for by the directive?