sick note and holiday pay

kpwll

I hope the following question makes sense:

Please could someone verify (or not) that if you are covered by a sick note, self-certified and then doctor provided, that your employer cannot over-ride it and exchange odd days (in different weeks) of sick pay with holiday pay?

Thank you.

anamenottaken

kpwll wrote: »

I hope the following question makes sense:

Please could someone verify (or not) that if you are covered by a sick note, self-certified and then doctor provided, that your employer cannot over-ride it and exchange odd days (in different weeks) of sick pay with holiday pay?

Thank you.

Do you know an employee who wants an employer to do that?

kpwll

No it's actually happened to my husband and we just wanted to know that it's wrong to substitute sick pay with holiday pay and I don't mean Bank holidays but ordinary holiday allowance.

Torry_Quine

kpwll wrote: »

No it's actually happened to my husband and we just wanted to know that it's wrong to substitute sick pay with holiday pay and I don't mean Bank holidays but ordinary holiday allowance.

They can't force you to take holiday as you are covered by a fit-note but if you are only getting SSP then an employee may prefer to have the time as holiday and therefore get full pay.

kpwll

Thanks for the replies, my husband gets approx 80% of his pay whilst on the 'sick'. He was off for a while after an operation and then, because he had accrued so many holidays took 12 days holiday (after his note had finished and with employers agreement) before starting back to work last Monday. When he went through all of his payslips, his work had substituted odd days of sick pay for holidays whilst he was still covered by his sick notes. He hasn't/didn't ask or agree to them doing this.
Is he within his rights to ask them to 'refund' the holiday days as he was covered by the 'sick note' at the time.

Torry_Quine

kpwll wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, my husband gets approx 80% of his pay whilst on the 'sick'. He was off for a while after an operation and then, because he had accrued so many holidays took 12 days holiday (after his note had finished and with employers agreement) before starting back to work last Monday. When he went through all of his payslips, his work had substituted odd days of sick pay for holidays whilst he was still covered by his sick notes. He hasn't/didn't ask or agree to them doing this.
Is he within his rights to ask them to 'refund' the holiday days as he was covered by the 'sick note' at the time.

I would think so yes.

mariefab

Employers generally have quite a lot of power regarding when holidays are taken.
However this doesn't usually apply when an employee is off sick.

If you were signed off sick during a booked holiday you'd be entitled to have the number of days that you were sick added back to your holiday entitlement to be taken at a later time.
Although employees can ask to be paid holiday pay while off sick (perhaps if they're only getting SSP or less,) employers should be careful about agreeing to this to avoid the risk of the holidays being reclaimed later.

In your husband's case his employer can't just unilaterally pick days during sick leave and decide to call them holidays.
So, he's entitled to have the number of day's that his employer paid as holidays during his sick period re-added to his holiday entitlement.
If they paid full pay for the holiday days he'll probably need to reimburse the 20%.

paulineb_2

Sometimes you can lose your entitlement to holidays, companies Ive worked for have taken public holidays off people if they have been off sick for a period of time.

I think it something you'll need to ask them as to whether this is policy and if necessary, speak to a union about it as well.

anamenottaken

paulineb wrote: »

Sometimes you can lose your entitlement to holidays, companies Ive worked for have taken public holidays off people if they have been off sick for a period of time.

I think it something you'll need to ask them as to whether this is policy and if necessary, speak to a union about it as well.

Holiday entitlement can be lost by dictat of the company only if it is above the statutory entitlement, and only for that excess entitlement.