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Article 9 of the Convention. Postponement or accumulation of holidays. The Committee notes section 218(4) of the new Labour Code No. 262/2006 Coll. provides that, when urgent operational reasons prevent the employer from granting annual leave in the calendar year in which the leave entitlement arises, leave must be scheduled and taken until 31 October of the subsequent year, and that, when the employee fails to take such leave until the end of the subsequent year, his/her leave entitlement expires. The Committee recalls, in this connection, that the Convention requires that any period of annual paid leave, which may not be taken (for instance due to sickness or injury), be deferred but not lost or compensated (except in case of termination of employment). The Committee also recalls that the Court of Justice of the European Communities in a recent decision (Case C-350/06) has reaffirmed – making express references to relevant provisions of ILO Convention No. 132 – the inalienable character of the worker’s right to annual holiday with pay and has clearly established that an employee who has not been able to effectively exercise in time his/her right to leave cannot nonetheless be forfeited. While noting that the previous Labour Code did not include any provision similar to the one contained in section 218(4) of the new Labour Code, the Committee requests the Government to provide additional explanations in this respect.

Part V of the report form. Application in practice. The Committee would appreciate if the Government would provide together with its next report up-to-date information on the practical application of the Convention, including statistical data on the number of workers covered by the relevant legislation, inspection results showing the number of infringements of the legislation in respect of annual holiday and sanctions imposed, copies of relevant collective agreements, official reports or studies on issues related to the Convention, etc.