Facts
X. was employed as a pilot at Balair/CTA Leisure AG. Upon the opening of bankruptcy proceedings against Balair/CTA Leisure AG in November 2001, the bankruptcy office collated a claim by X. in the amount of CHF 30,807.82 for unused vacation (49 days) in the First Class. Swissair Swiss Air Transport Company Ltd. in Composition Liquidation and Flightlease AG in Composition Liquidation challenged the collocation plan and demanded that part of the claim in the amount of CHF 16,661.37 be assigned to the Third Class.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. It decided that the entire compensation claim for unused vacation must be collated in the First Class. The vacation entitlement accrues pro rata temporis according to the duration of employment. Compensation for vacation entitlements is generally only permissible if their consumption in kind is no longer possible upon termination of the employment relationship. Since in the present case the compensation claim for unused vacation only arose upon the opening of bankruptcy proceedings, it must be fully collated in the First Class.
The Federal Supreme Court further stated that this solution does not give rise to any problems in connection with the statute of limitations. For vacation entitlements that have already lapsed or become time-barred, no compensation claim arises at all, and a compensation claim that arose more than six months before the opening of bankruptcy proceedings…