Temporary workers must have the same vacations and extra pay as those hired

The case concerns a lawsuit filed in 2017 by two workers from the Portuguese temporary employment agency, Luso Temp.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled this Thursday that employees hired through a temporary employment agency (ETT) must have “at least” the same compensation in paid annual vacation days and pay extraordinary vacation than if they held that position in the user company.

In its ruling, the European High Court has indicated that workers “assigned by temporary employment agencies” must enjoy working and employment conditions “at least equal to those that would correspond to them if they had been hired directly by said company” in order to occupy the position.

The CJEU has indicated that the compensation that “an employer is obliged to pay” in compensation for the termination of their employment relationship on vacation days not taken, extraordinary vacation pay is included in the concept of “essential conditions of work and employment” of the European Directive.

The case refers to a lawsuit filed in 2017 by two workers from the Portuguese temporary employment agency, Luso Temp, to obtain payment of the unpaid amounts of paid vacation days and extraordinary vacation pay, since the ETT considered that the calculation method to be applied is the Portuguese regime for workers assigned by temporary employment agencies.

The Court of First Instance of Braga consulted the European High Court on the compatibility of the Portuguese law with the European Directive on work through temporary employment agencies, since the Portuguese Government maintains that the special regime does not define the calculation rules of vacation days for workers assigned by ETT, so it is “necessary to resort to the application of the general regime”, which is applied regardless of the contractual relationship.

The high European court has considered that the European Directive opposes the Portuguese national regulations with regard to compensation for workers assigned by ETT and has considered that the compensation is lower than what these workers would be entitled to if they had been hired directly by the company.

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