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Employment tribunal ruling; employees can carry holiday over to the following year if leave lost due to illness
Added: 2010-02-22 14:20:00.0A couple of weeks ago, we posted news of an EAT ruling stating that employees must comply with their employer’s annual holiday policy - or run the risk of losing their holiday entitlement altogether. While this appeared to be very good news for employers, they will be less pleased with the latest ruling by an employment tribunal.
There were two major court rulings last year relating to whether or not an employee should be able to carry over annual leave into the following year if they have been unable to take holiday due to sickness. This week, the first UK employment tribunal since these court rulings has stated that an employee should be able to carry over annual leave to the next year if they have been too ill to take it.
The case in question saw an employee break their ankle, preventing them from working for three months. The employee then asked if he could claim back four weeks’ holiday that he had previously booked but that he was unable to take due to being injured. His employers refused the request and the employee took them to tribunal.
The judge of the case stated that the employee “is entitled to take the holidays which he was prevented by ill-health from taking in March of 2009 at some subsequent time in the following leave year."
The two cases last year were held at the European Court of Justice and ruled that in some circumstances, holiday entitlement should be allowed to be taken into the following year. However, in certain scenarios, this would be in conflict with the UK’s Working Time Regulations (WTR) which specify that it is unlawful for an employee to take more than 8 days into the following year. It is because of the WTR that employment experts had warned that the law was hazy on this matter – and a tribunal case such as the one above is the clarification that many had seeked for businesses in the UK.
However, employers must be aware that the tribunal ruling above is not binding on other tribunals. What it does signify however is a possible gear change when it comes to similar rulings in the future now precedence has been set.
As an employer, how do you feel about the ruling above? Does it seem like a rough deal for employers? Or do you think that its fair enough for staff? Let us know by commenting below.
The content of this blog is not legal advice and should not be relied on as such, or used instead of seeking legal advice.
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