What to Do if You’re Sick During Vacation Leave?

There is a lot of confusion regarding rules on sick leave and annual leave, it gets even worse when they coincide. Not many people understand how the different leaves interact with each other and how one should respond when they collide.

The confusion on how this works might be due to contradictions in European, domestic and case law. Things are quite different in today’s labour market. Employment is scarce, so those who have jobs tend to try to maximize their stay. Sadly, this means that the employer is placed at an advantage to the detriment of the worker.

So How Does Holiday Entitlement Work in the UK?

Like Many countries in Europe, Workers in the UK are entitled to some time off. It’s mandatory for companies in the UK to give leave to their employees for a certain period of time.

All workers are entitled to 5 to 6 weeks of paid holiday every year. It’s known as Statutory Leave or Annual Leave. Bank Holidays are left at the discretion of the employer. They can choose to or not to include these holidays as part of the paid leave.

This rule applies to workers who work 5-days a week minimum (full-time employees). For part-time workers, the number is lower because they work fewer hours per week. The paid annual leave is mandatory and a worker can file a dispute if his rights are not met.

How Does Sick Leave Entitlement Work in the UK?

An Employee is entitled to sick leave in the UK. An employee will be required to contact their employer within seven days in order to be entitled to sick pay. The employee will be required to provide the employer with a fit note (sick note). This note will explain what state the employee is in and whether they are ready for work or not.

All employees in the UK are entitled to sick pay. Depending on your company, you might receive Statutory Sick Pay or Company Sick Pay. The former is the minimum you can get while being out of work due to illness. The latter is a more generous sick pay package that the employer may choose to give you.

What Happens When Holiday and Sick Leave Coincide?

Thanks to an ECJ case law, the rules have changed on when holiday and sick leave coincide. For prearranged holidays, the employee should make their employer aware of their illness as soon as possible.

In this situation, the employees are allowed to take their holiday at any other time. If they are unable to take the leave during that holiday-leave year, the leave is rolled over to the next year. They can choose to reschedule for the next holiday leave year.

An employee can also choose to change holiday leave into sick leave. In this scenario, they are only entitled to sick pay. This is because they are unfit to do the job during that period. The Working Time Regulations (WTR) also allows an employee to change sick leave to holiday leave as well. This is due to).