Ask an Ealing Expert

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Whether you're an employer, an employee or facing unemployment, find out where you stand from Ealing expert, Louise Taft

Sick workers entitled to paid holiday

The European Court has finally ruled in a long awaited judgment on the subject of paid holiday for workers absent from work through sickness. They decided that sick workers are still entitled to be paid for their annual leave entitlement, even if they are absent from work for the whole year.

Our national courts will need to decide whether employers will have to pay sick workers for their holiday whilst they are off sick or allow them to carry leave forward. The House of Lords will rule on that later this year. What is clear is that workers who leave their jobs after a period of sick leave will be entitled to be paid in lieu for any holiday that has accrued whilst they have been off sick.

New Employment Act passed

The Employment Act 2008 amongst other things repeals the hated statutory discipline and grievance procedures. At the moment, if employers don’t follow the statutory procedure before dismissing an employee, the dismissal will automatically be found to be unfair. Employees are preventing from bringing claims relating to pay or discrimination without first having raised a written internal Grievance with their employer.

Instead, Tribunals will consider whether employees and employers have complied with the new ACAS Code of Practice on discipline and grievance procedures and adjust Tribunal compensation upwards or downwards by up to 25% if parties do not comply. It is hoped that a more sensible practical approach will be applied by Tribunals to smaller employers who haven’t followed the procedures but would have dismissed an employee within the law if they had.

That’s not to say getting the procedures right isn’t important. The percentage “uplift” should be sufficient incentive to make sure that all employers take advice before dismissing an employee.

 

 

January 29, 2009