Maternity leave, parental leave and paid annual leave

The WTR element of the Modern Workplaces consultation also dealt with the interaction between annual leave and maternity leave and parental leave. ECJ judgements in the Gomez and Land Tirol cases mean that a worker cannot lose his or her right to annual leave because of maternity and parental leave:

• Merino Gomez v Continental Industrias del Caucho SA, CJEU case C-342/01 covered maternity leave;

• Zentralbetriebsrat der Landeskrankenhauser Tirols v Land Tirol, CJEU case C-486/08) covered parental leave.

The government planned to change the WTR regulations to ensure that parents taking family-related leave do not lose out on annual leave. At the time that this booklet was published these changes had not been finalised or implemented.