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Advice For Employers & HR Professionals

What is the position if a pre-arranged annual leave coincides with a period of sick leave?

 

Where an employee’s pre-arranged annual leave coincides with a period of sick leave, the employee must have the option to designate it to an alternative period. This right to annual leave applies even if means that the annual leave is carried over to the next leave year.

Alternatively, if the employee is not fit for work, but able to take a holiday, they can choose to pause their sickness and use their paid holiday entitlement. It is for an employee to request a holiday whilst off sick, an employer cannot force them to do so. Once the employee returns from their holiday, sick leave may continue if they remain unfit for work.

An employee on sick leave continues to accrue annual leave despite not working. As such, an employee on sick leave who has been unable to take annual leave must be allowed to take it following their return to work, even if it means carrying it over to another year.

 

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