The European Court of Justice, with this ridiculous ruling, has just opened the door to widespread abuse of the system. This is a shirkers’ ruling. It will do nothing to promote productivity and everything to promote indolence and work avoidance. – © Mark
THE TELEGRAPH: Workers who fall ill during their holidays could now claim the time back from their employers following a landmark European Court of Justice judgment that lawyers warned was open to abuse.
The court ruled that employees had the right to ask for statutory leave to be "reallocated" when it was spoilt by sickness.
Under the terms of the judgement, employees would even be allowed to carry any annual leave ruined by illness over into the next holiday year.
The ruling is effectively a new interpretation of the European Working Time Directive on workers' hours, which applies in Britain across the entire private and public sector.
Leading employment lawyers warned it would be costly for businesses and that it left "the door open for abuse" by unscrupulous employees seeking to bolster their holiday entitlement by simply claiming to have a cold or flu while on leave.
A worker could phone up while on holiday and report in sick in the normal way - taking the day off sick, rather than counting it against their annual leave entitlement.
The decision has its origins in a separate ruling on a case brought by a group of British workers earlier this year which said that workers were entitled to accrue holiday during sick leave. However, that had left open the question of what would happen if sickness coincided with scheduled leave.
The new ruling, over a case in Spain, is likely to mean that employers will end up paying for both their employees' sickness absence and a rescheduled holiday.
Owen Warnock, a partner at the law firm Eversheds, said: "Many employers take the view that if an employee is sick while on holiday, that is just bad luck for them.
"The European court has now said that this is not allowed by the working time directive.
"The danger of abuse is clear: an employee could increase his or her holiday entitlement by ensuring that in most years they alleged they were sick while on holiday. It may only be the occasional ‘bad penny’ who does this, but the resentment that it would create with colleagues should not be underestimated." >>> Richard Edwards | Monday, September 14, 2009
