The German Federal Labour Court has declared that it is discriminatory to vary annual leave allowances according to an employee’s age – even if the scaling of allowances is set out in a collective agreement.
According to the agreement in question, holiday entitlements ranged from 26 days for employees under the age of 30 years to 30 days for those over the age of 40. The court could not find any justification for disadvantaging those under the age of 40 and held that it could only be remedied through an upward adjustment, granting 30 days leave to all employees irrespective of their age.
Curiously, the court did concede that age-related scaling might be legitimate if it was provided to take into account the increased need for recreation time by older employees. Therefore, differences in entitlement might be justified for employees nearing retirement (20/03/12 no.9 AZR 529/10).