Of holidays, work and humanisation: a missed opportunity?

Abstract: In Stringer, the Court of Justice has considered another dimension of the right to paid annual leave in Art.7 of the Working Time Directive: in particular, the effects of longterm sick leave on the entitlement to and exercise of paid annual leave. While the Court of Justice reaffirmed its status as a fundamental social right, the judgment considered that it was for Member States to determine whether annual leave could be exercised during a period that would otherwise be sick leave. This article argues that Stringer represents a missed opportunity. In failing to invoke the humanisation principle in Art.13 of the Directive as an overarching interpretive norm, the Court of Justice failed to articulate a convincing legal response to some of the referred questions. The article offers a normative account of the humanisation principle and elucidates some of its specific regulatory implications in context of working time regulation. Extending the reach of the AETR principle: Comment on Commission v Greece (C-45/07)

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