Unused vacation pay claim rejected as time-barred by French court, Digi Mart USA News (France): The case dates back to 2018, when the employee, a back-office coordinator for the Association pour le droit à l’initiative économique (Adie), was placed on sick leave from August 1 to September 3. Shortly afterward, his employment contract ended through a mutual termination agreement, known in France as a rupture conventionnelle.
At the time, the French Labor Code excluded the accrual of paid leave during non-occupational sick leave, a provision that conflicted with European law. France subsequently brought its rules into line, and since 2009 employees have been able to accrue two working days of leave per month of non-occupational sick leave, up to 24 days per year.
Anticipating this change, the former employee brought a claim before the Paris labor tribunal (conseil de prud’hommes) on March 27, 2024, seeking a compensatory indemnity for his 2018 sick leave. On March 28, 2025, the tribunal ruled the claim inadmissible on grounds of prescription, because more than three years had passed since his departure, according to the report by the Cadremploi website.
The former employee then appealed to the Court of Cassation, but his appeal was also rejected. In its ruling, the court reaffirmed that when a contract ends before accrued leave has been taken, the employee is entitled to a compensatory indemnity, but that right is subject to a three-year limitation period.
Setting the starting point of that period at the date the employment contract ended, September 3, 2018, the court held that the action brought in 2024 was out of time, confirming the definitive inadmissibility of the claim.
