Catherwood LibraryILR School

In the midst of escalating regulatory confusion and conflict regarding “gig economy” workers and what rights they do and do not have, the European Union’s Court of Justice (ECJ), the EU’s highest court, has ruled that “’an employer that does not allow a worker to exercise his right to paid annual leave must bear the consequences’”. The case at hand dealt with a window salesman, Mr. King, who worked for The Sash Window Workshop Limited in the UK for over a decade and whose employment contract never specified if he could take paid leave. It was decided at a UK employment tribunal that Mr. King, who was allegedly self-employed, should have been considered a full employee and been afforded his rights accordingly. The ECJ ruled that Mr. King’s former employer did owe him £27,000 in holiday pay as he was not able to take his holidays. This decision will have a broad impact on “gig workers” who oftentimes are classified as self-employed by employers to avoid costs associated with full workers. Union leaders throughout the UK have heralded this ruling as game-changing for the millions of workers throughout the EU and UK whose true earnings have been withheld from them due to legal loopholes.