Labour Research August 2000

Law Matters

Enforcing directives

The Court of Appeal has ruled that public service workers can only directly enforce a European Union directive that has not been incorporated into UK law where its provisions are sufficiently precise. The court ruled that the provisions of the working time directive, which state that workers have the right to a minimum of four weeks' annual leave, did not fall into that category. The directive was not sufficiently precise about the limitations or qualifications to the right which individual states were free to impose.