Legislation update: deferring holiday until after sick leave
- Under Article 7 of the European Directive workers are entitled to four weeks paid annual leave per year
- The Pereda case has highlighted this right and clarified the difference between sick leave and holiday
- It further suggests all employers can no longer view it as bad luck if a worker suffers illness while they are on leave
With winter approaching fast, questions have been raised over what to do if workers are sick at a time when they were due to be on annual leave. In a recent case, one employee who was injured just before he was due to take annual leave. Richard White, specialist employment solicitor at Withy King, considers this case further.
The case: Pereda v Madrid Movilidad SA
Facts
Mr Pereda was employed by Madrid Molivad SA, a firm dealing with the removal of wrongly parked cars in Spain as a specialist driver.
In 2007, in accordance with Madrid Molivad SA’s staff leave schedule, Mr Pereda was allocated a period of annual leave from 16 July until 14 August. However, a few weeks before he was due to take this leave, Mr Pereda suffered an accident at work and was consequently on a period of sick leave until 13 August 2007.
This meant that was an overlap between the time Mr Pereda was due to be on annual leave and the time he was off sick, leaving him with only two days of annual leave left once he was well enough to return to work.
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