These conjoined cases involved the same legal issues that were referred to the Court of Justice for the European Union from the Bulgarian and Italian courts respectively.  In QH, the claimant was a former employee in a school in Bulgaria who was dismissed, but the dismissal was regarded as unlawful and she was reinstated.   In CV, the claimant was an employee of an Italian credit institution, where she had been dismissed, but it was also declared unlawful and she was reinstated.  In both events, they were then subsequently dismissed again.  The issue that arose with both was whether they were entitled to paid annual leave for the point between the first dismissal and the reinstatement.

The legal question concerned