Unproven unpaid leave counts as downtime, appeal court rules

The Klaipėdos apygardos teismas upheld the core of a Tauragė rulingTeismai against the haulier UAB Sautransa: 138 days the driver spent on unpaid leaveTeismai between August 2023 and September 2024Teismai were employer-caused downtimeTeismai, payable at the minimum wageTeismai. The 12 November 2026 ruling in case No. e2A-1771-513/2026 keeps the EUR 6,375.60 downtime awardTeismai, cuts the late-settlement penalty to EUR 5,544Teismai, and discontinues the part of the case that asked to declare the dismissal unlawfulTeismai, because the driver died while the case was pendingTeismai.

The driver, employed since 13 February 2023 as a driver-freight forwarder, was dismissed on 9 September 2024Teismai under Article 55(1) of the Darbo kodeksas, termination on the employee's own initiative, which requires the employee to give the employer written notice at least twenty calendar days ahead. Six days earlier he had asked to be dismissed under Article 56(1)(2)Teismai, the serious-reason ground available where the employer has paid none of the salary due for two consecutive months or more. The first-instance court found the employer had chosen the ground that suited it to avoid the two-average-salary severanceTeismai Article 56(2) attaches to a serious-reason exit, and reclassified the exit accordingly.

That reclassification cannot survive the driver's deathTeismai. A claim to declare a dismissal unlawful defends the strictly personal right to work, and the pay claims attached to it are derivative of it; under Article 416 of the Civilinio proceso kodeksas, procedural succession in labour cases passes only to claims for wages and other employment-related paymentsE TAR. The appeal panel therefore annuls the reclassificationTeismai and the EUR 3,054.33 severance awardTeismai and discontinues that part of the case under Article 293(7)Teismai. The remaining claims — unpaid wages, unused leave, travel costs, downtime and penalties — are independent and pass to the three successorsTeismaiTeismai.

Of those, only the downtime award was actually fought on appealTeismai, and it standsTeismai. Unpaid leave is granted only on the employee's request under Article 137Teismai, and where the employer sends a worker on leave without a written request, the employer bears the burden of proving the worker's will once disputedTeismai. Sautransa filed no request at allTeismai, only managers' orders that cited requests, plus an internal agreement on unpaid leave between tripsTeismai that handwriting analysis showed the driver never signedTeismai. The director's and the accountant's accounts of that agreement contradicted each other, and the health excuse — that the driver's licence was suspended from 15 September 2023 to 17 February 2024 — collapsedTeismai because the time sheets and tachograph records show the employer sent him to Sweden from 15 September to 16 November 2023Teismai, inside the very period he was said to be unable to driveTeismai. Periods totalling 138 working days, plainly against the employee's economic interests, are therefore downtime through no fault of the employee under Article 47(1)(1)Teismai, payable at the minimum monthly wage under Article 47(2)(4)Teismai: 6.9 months at EUR 924TeismaiTeismai, or EUR 6,375.60Teismai.

The penalty is recalculated under the transitional rule of the 21 May 2026 amending act No. XV-969: EUR 924 times six months, or EUR 5,544Teismai — EUR 1,848 to each successor — instead of the EUR 9,162.78 granted belowTeismai. Litigation costs follow fairness rather than arithmetic where the employer's conduct was found unlawful: the successors recover their EUR 2,312.50 first-instance costs in full, EUR 770.83 each, the employer recovers nothing, and one successor recovers a further EUR 900 for the appeal response. The Telšiai disputes commission is informed of the outcome.

Legal basis: Darbo kodeksas Articles 47, 55, 56, 137, 146(2) and 147(2); Civilinio proceso kodeksas Articles 48, 293(7), 326, 412 and 416.