Another win of the Central Staff Committee as the administration finally puts in place the long-awaited carry-over automation for more than 12 days of annual leave, for colleagues who had been on long sick leave!

With the letter Ares(2025)10708842, DG-HR responded to the continuous requests of the Central Staff Committee (dating back to 2022 – Ares(2022)5274573 and Ares(2023)1381652) that “As from 1 January 2026, the carry-over of annual leave for staff members on long-term sick leave — defined as absences of more than 20 consecutive working days within a calendar year — will be processed automatically in Sysper, without the need for any manual intervention or validation”.

The issue of carry-over of more than 12 days for colleagues on long sick leave was the subject of the Strack Case (Case C-579/12) an historical decision that R&D has fully supported (The right to postpone annual leave in case of illness – Renouveau & Démocratie)

R&D had always asked the Commission to put an end to its somewhat schizophrenic position, and finally to respect the basic principles of European employment law which are enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights in its personnel policies, as well as the guarantees offered to other employees by European Directives. To the contrary, the Commission had always maintained that the Directives apply to Member States and not to EU institutions and that consequently their dispositions could not be considered as imposing the same obligations on it towards their staff.

By its decision, the Court in the context of its role aiming to guarantee the unity and coherence of EU Law had put an end to this hypocrisy and finally recognised the application of EU Employment Law to EU staff confirming that an EU official who has been unable to take annual leave because of long-term illness must be allowed to carry that leave over and, if it cannot be taken before leaving service, is entitled to financial compensation. This is because paid annual leave is a fundamental social right under EU law. 

Despite this clear decision, many colleagues have confirmed to us that the application of this rule was too simply to the detriment of colleagues. In fact, colleagues were often afraid to ask for the carry-over of the excess days (over 12), or they simply didn’t know that this possibility existed. We have seen in various cases the “guidelines” from a Director-General to inform staff that “the DGs principle is not to allow more than 12 days of carry over” and that “staff should take all annual leave beyond 12 days before the end of the year” without no reference whatsoever to the specific case of colleagues who during the calendar year were on more than 20 days of consecutive sick leave. 

Or even worse, colleagues have reported receiving unacceptable “invitations” such as: “You’ve already been absent a lot this year, you’re not going to ask to carry-over your days of annual leave to next year so you can be absent for a long time again, are you?”

With the new automation, at least colleagues who had suffered long sick leaves (20 or more consecutive days) will not have to request for their additional days to be carried-over and the line managers will not be able to arbitrarily decide. Besides, with the present communication, we would like all staff to be informed that this “forced annual leave” during the last days of the year is no longer necessary for colleagues who had been on long sick leave.

R&D remains at your disposal for any further clarification and assistance on this matter and will stay vigilant that the existing decision is fully applied. R&D will, as always, stigmatise the services that have imposed colleagues to take “obligatory” annual leave at these last days of the year, through misleading information and communication material.

Cristiano Sebastiani,

President