Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Holidays with Pay (Agriculture) Convention, 1952 (No. 101) - Caribbean Part of the Netherlands

Article 5(d) of the Convention. Temporary interruptions due to sickness or injury not to be counted as part of annual holiday. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that with respect to Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba – which as from October 2010 have become the Caribbean Part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands – the Convention is applied through the Holiday Act (Vakantiewet) 1949 BES. The Committee notes, in this connection, that under section 3 of the Holiday Act, the entitlement to annual holiday is forfeited if the worker has been absent from work for a period of at least six months due to sickness or accident. The Committee recalls, in this respect, 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, in whole or in part, or compensated (except in the case of termination of employment). In addition, the Committee understands that a similar provision was found in the legislation applicable to the European Part of the Netherlands but has recently been modified to permit an employee to acquire full annual leave even in the case of long-term sickness. The Committee accordingly requests the Government to consider the possibility of revising section 3 of the Holiday Act to bring it into conformity with the requirements of this Article of the Convention.