Sickness during annual leave

Helen Abbott
Member - 31 posts

Hello Anne-Marie,

There is no legal entitlement to refund of annual leave if the employee falls ill during a period of annual leave unless stated otherwise in the contract of employment.

I hope this is helpful.

Kind regards,

Helen Abbott Chartered MCIPD

HR Consultant

Anonymous

if pre booked holiday falls within a period of certified sickness, is the holiday refundable?

Anonymous

Is this also the case if the holiday is a planned factory shut down?

Kelly Smith
Member - 10 posts

Further to Julia?s comments would someone be able to comment... 'if pre booked holiday falls within a period of certified sickness, is the holiday refundable? ?Thanks

Jayn Bond - Workplace Law Network
Online advisor - 87 posts

Hi Kelly

The answer lies within your own policies, contracts, handbook or custom and practice. It depends what you have done before or what you have written down about it.

If you have never had the problem, and there is nothing written, then my normal advice is that the employees should be advised that they must report their illness as soon as it occurs (not when they come back), and they must submit a GP certificate for the illness (no matter how long it lasted) if they require their annual leave to be refunded. This at least means that employees feel they are being treated fairly.

It may be too late for an employee who has come back from leave now and so you may wish to decide on a reasonable response. You might decide that you will advise all employees of the above policy for future occasions, and for this one time you will agree to refund half the leave if you are happy that the illness was genuine.

Hope that helps

Elizabeth Ottewell
Member - 2 posts

Is anyone aware of an employee's legal entitlement to accrual of annual leave when they have been sick off sick for both a short and long term period? It is my understanding that holiday does not accrue if an individual has been off for the whole year but does it accrue if an individual has been off for part of the year?

Jayn Bond - Workplace Law Network
Online advisor - 87 posts

Hi Elizabeth

Once again, this mainly relies on your terms and conditions. Employees continue to accrue annual leave but the WTR does not allow the carry over of leave entitlement.
So if your company only allows the statutory holiday, then the person off sick will lose their outstanding entitlement when their absence goes on into the next leave year. When they return they are entitled to the allowance accrued during that current leave year.
If your terms and conditions allow for some carry over - e.g.5 days - then they should be able to retain that carry over.

Hope that helps

alison wait
Member - 2 posts

If an employee has a planned operation, are they entitled to SSP to recover, or should they agree to take it as annual leave.

Jayn Bond - Workplace Law Network
Online advisor - 87 posts

The employee should be furnished with a medical certificate from the hospital which signs them off for their recovery period so that would be SSP.

Not sure if you mean planned and that it is perhaps unnecessary - cosmetic surgery? Or just planned in the sense that they know when it is going to happen.

If it is a real choice issue (cosmetic) then you may wish to have medical support that the operation is necessary for the employee's health (mental or physical) before agreeing to sick leave rather than annual leave.

Vicki Grace
Member - 3 posts

What rules apply when the person has had an operation and been signed off for 4 weeks but the last 2 weeks of that period was already booked as leave. The other issue with this is he is travelling abroad on holiday so which takes precedent - the sick certificate or the booked annual leave?
There has been a question that if he is well enough to go abroad he would have been well enough to come back on light duties. However that too causes me concern as to whether we can reasonably ask someone to come back to work if they have been signed off by a doctor.

Richard Sears
Member - 20 posts

The whole issue of claiming sickness whilst on leave is certainly a grey area and would seem to be at the discretion of the employer.Whether a certificate from your GP would assist in claiming back your leave allowance I couldn't say.Dare I say that you may or may not be credited with the leave based upon your personal attendance at work and the ammount of annual leave available to the individual in question. It has been known 'allegedly'for employees within certain company's counting on sick days as additional days leave when their entitlemnt is running low, not that I am suggesting for one minute that any of the contributors are abusing the system in any way shape or form.It ceratinly poses questions for both employee and employer.

Kelly Barrett
Member - 1 post

Our company policy states that all employees must save 3 days annual leave to cover the Christmas holiday period. If an employee is certified off sick over this period, does the sickness override the holiday already booked?

Jenny B
Member - 11 posts

I believe the companies that most people talk about crediting holiday back when people are off sick are public sector/civil service. This does not generally happen in the private sector (where companies are accountable for their own money!). I have not known a private sector company to operate where they 'refund' any holiday entitlement. Generally, once holiday is booked it is to be taken, regardless of whether that person is then signed off sick. If they were due to go on holiday (ie, somewhere abroad) the majority will still go on holiday so it is generally still counted as holiday.

Kelly, in answer to your query specifically - You would have to check your handbook and terms and conditions but I would say, unless these say different, that the holiday stands as it must be taken by all staff.

sheena farenden
Member - 60 posts

Concerned that nobody seems to know their own contracts of service does this mean that there are no agreed procedures in which case I would check with ACAS before deciding.

I should point out that the Civil Service has the highest sick leave because they are not allowed holiday whilst sick or immediately on returning to work. If they return on shortened hours they cannot take any leave at all until back to full hours all hours not worked counted as sick.

However they do allow staff to claim any unused time back to be used at a later date as long as it is not extreme.

I should also point out that just because someone is not fit for work it does not mean they are unfit to live. As long as their Dr has said they are unfit for work but that they are fit for the holiday I would beware especially in stress/depression cases. I agree there are those who abuse any system but remember if someone has gone through a health crisis a holiday maybe just what they need.

Kevin Brown
Member - 94 posts

Sheena is correct in pointing out the idiosyncracies of the Civil Service. Anyone returning from holiday and taking sick leave straight after is invariably required to supply a medical certificate. If, for instance, an employee develops a migraine that causes them to leave work at midday they might be willing to take a half day's annual leave but the management protocols ensure that it's counted as sick leave. Of course, what such an absence can't be is both sick leave and annual leave, if it's counted as sick leave no deduction is taken from the annual leave entitlment. But, the period of sick leave does count towards trigger points when considering managing performance and attendance which, contrary to popular belief, HM Civil Service is extremely keen on. And if the sick leave is significant it will also affect the calculation of annual leave entitlements.

Anne McAllister
Member - 129 posts

In the NHS on the old contracts (remember them?) staff who were already off on sick leave who had planned holidays or been given holidays to suit the service got them back but only if they asked for them which meant that many who were unaware of their rights lost out.
Its true that if a GP advises an employee that a holiday would benefit them they should not be penalised but If Im too sick to work the last thing Id be planning is a holiday.

Sunny Singh
Member - 1 post

are companies breaking the law if they do not follow the 24 day annual leave entitlement that was passed oct 2007?