Monday, June 25, 2012
One point for the Times!
Irony, slightly dark, is always welcome when contemplating the news. So is pithy analysis. Hence "we" at Unforeseen Contingencies are pleased to note the following.The EU's Court of Justice has just ruled that workers in the EU who become sick during vacations are legally entitled to a new vacation. Their "logic" is that that vacation time (a "right") is a time to rest and enjoy leisure. If one is sick, one is doing something else, i.e. trying to rest and recover from illness. Ipso facto being sick means one is not on vacation, but on sick leave. Although the case originated in Spain, the ruling applies to all EU member countries. (I'm reminded of the old Soviet saying, "We pretend to work, they pretend to pay us." Only in the EU, employers actually have to pay.) (And no one can figure out why the EU has chronic unemployment problems.)
The inane ruling is in itself a joke, but writer Paul Geitner and The New York Times deserve particular credit for the brilliant final sentence of the article:
"The ruling does not apply to the 25 percent of the Spanish labor force that is currently unemployed."
