Holidays & Sick Days

LegacyUser

Hi, i had two weeks booked off but became sick at the beginning and had to go to hospital and subsequently got a sick cert for two weeks - this wasn't a problem with work and they said that as I was sick I was still entitled to my holidays.

However due to the way they work the year meant I had to take my holidays by the end of the following month as it was the end of the year but I couldn't take most of my days as they had already had been booked by other employees meaning I was unable to take time off at the same time.

As a result I had a substantial amount of holidays left to take, but they do not allow them to carry over to the next year and hence I have now lost same. Am I entitled to be reimbursed for these holidays or are they now gone and tough luck?

Thanks for your help!

Jerry

tatli_lokma

OP, do you get the standard 20 days per year statutory entitlement or do you get above that?

If you get the statutory amount, then it is as it says - statutory, i.e you MUST be give this leave. It is your employers responsibility to ensure that you take your leave in the leave year. If you do not or cannot do this, they have to allow you to carry it over or give you the leave at the earliest opportunity. So in other words, they cannot just force you to 'lose' the days.

If you get in excess of the 20 days, then the extra days are a benefit, and they would be allowed to cancel any leave over the statutory 20days if not taken. For example, if you get 25 days per year, you must still get 20 days, but if you did not take the other 5 they could cancel these as they are not part of the legal statutory amount. But the statutory 20 days must always be given, so in your situation you would still be due some leave.

You cannot be paid out for these untaken leave days, as that is illegal. You can only be paid out if you are leaving employment.

Your employer is obliged to either permit you to take the extra leave at a time that they agree to, or they must allow the leave to be carried over. They can specify a deadline for this leave to be used, but again if they do not permit you to take the leave as it conflicts with other leave booked and/or business needs then they have to make arrangements for you to take the time at some point.

Quite simply, they cannot just cancel off 2 weeks of leave from your statutory entitlement. To do that is illegal.

Whilst off sick, there is no legal entitlement to accrue leave (this is a gray area as there are european rulings, but generally if you are off sick for more than a few days the employer does have a legal case if they wish to stop your accrual of leave whilst off sick). So with you being off sick for 2 weeks this means that pro-rata your AL accrual for that period would have been 0.76 of a day. They might be pernickity and decide to deduct 3/4 of a day from your balance. But you would still get 9.25 days owed to you (or whatever amount of your statutory leave you have left).


See here for information on it and where to make a claim if it comes to it.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/leave_and_holidays/annual_leave_public_holidays.html

LegacyUser

Thanks for the info Little Ted, it is just the statutory entitlements, it's actually shift work I'm on so the holidays I'm taking would include days off in lieu for bank holidays that I was working, so it would be more than the 20 days but I would be entitled to them.

Thanks for your help again, much appreciated!