Untaken Leave Days Do Not Expire Year by Year: ÎCCJ Rules the 3 Years Start When You Leave the Job

For years on end you never used up your annual leave. You left the company and asked for the money on the days you had left, and the employer told you the claim had been time-barred long ago. The High Court of Cassation and Justice has ruled that this is not the case: the 3 years only start running on the day the employment relationship comes to an end. Decision No 40 of 9 March 2026 of the Panel for the resolution of points of law was published in Official Gazette of Romania No 665 of 11 August 2026 and is binding on all courts from that moment. It is the second significant clarification this year in the area of leave entitlements, after the rules on paying sick leave at rates of 55%, 65% and 75%.

The question came from the Bucharest Court of Appeal, Chamber VII for labour disputes and social security cases, in Case File No 20.893/3/2023. The claimant, a former prosecutor, had sought the cash value of the annual leave days he had not taken by the time his activity ceased. The Bucharest Tribunal had dismissed his claim as time-barred, by Civil Judgment No 6.082 of 6 November 2023, and on appeal the court found the issue unclear enough to deserve a ruling of principle.

The practical stakes are high, because the Labour Code contains two rules that appear to contradict each other. Article 146(3) says that the money for untaken leave may be paid only when the individual employment contract ends. Article 146(2) gives the employee an 18-month carry-over period, starting with the year following the one in which the entitlement arose, in which to take the leave in kind. And Article 268(1)(c) sets a 3-year limitation period for claims concerning salary rights that were not granted. The question was where those 3 years are counted from.

The High Court’s answer starts from a simple observation: you cannot lose a right you had no way of claiming. As long as the employment relationship is running, the employee has no avenue for a monetary claim over unused days, only the option of taking the leave in kind. The right of action therefore arises at the very moment when the payment obligation becomes due, that is, when the employment relationship ends.

What it changes in practice

The 3 years are counted from the last day of the contract. For monetary claims arising from leave days not taken by the time the employment or service relationship ended, the limitation period starts on the date of termination, not in each year in which the leave went unused. An employee who leaves in 2026 may in principle claim payment for older days without those days being automatically time-barred.

The 18-month carry-over is no longer an automatic guillotine. For the period exceeding that term, the High Court has set a substantive test rather than a calendar one: the right to payment survives where the employer did not genuinely give the employee the opportunity to exercise the right to leave, and does not exist where the employee chose not to take it even though the opportunity was offered.

The court will examine the conduct of both parties. Under the active role conferred by Article 22 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the judge checks the extent to which the employer met its duty to create the conditions for taking the leave, including the duty to inform, and the extent to which the employee requested the leave in line with the agreed schedule or within another reasonable period.

The rule also covers service relationships. The wording of the operative part expressly targets claims deriving from leave days not taken by the time employment or service relationships ended, which includes civil servants and professional categories with special status, as in the case that gave rise to the referral.

It is binding from publication. Under Article 521(3) of the Code of Civil Procedure, the ruling on the point of law is binding on the courts from the day it is published in the Official Gazette of Romania, that is, from 11 August 2026.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Until now, case law was divided. The majority view among the courts already held that the period runs from the end of the employment relationship, but there was also a minority view according to which limitation would start on the date when the employee’s right to request the leave arose. The difference was anything but theoretical: under the second reading, almost any claim covering days older than a few years was closed off from the outset.

The genuinely new element, however, is not the starting point of the limitation period but the second paragraph of the operative part, which concerns the substance of the right. The High Court adopted the reasoning of the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, in particular the judgment of 22 September 2022 in Case C-120/21, according to which the right to paid annual leave cannot lapse if the employer has not put the worker in a concrete position to exercise it.

In practice, the shift is from a mechanical test based solely on the passing of the 18 months to a test of conduct. If the employer cannot prove that it informed the employee and gave a real opportunity to take the days off, the right survives. If the employee refused or ignored the agreed schedule, the right lapses for the period exceeding the carry-over.

Advantages and disadvantages

Practical advice

Frequently asked questions