Entitlement to annual leave after sick leave

anoda_username

Is there an entitlement to annual leave after returning from long-term sick leave in the private sector?

Reading Citizens advice it states that in 2009 there was a ruling that sick leave should not effect annual leave but then further it says something about only the public sector? Or is it at discretion of the company?

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/leave_and_holidays/sick_leave.html

Any advice appreciated

Nody

Annual leave and sick leave

If you are ill while you are on annual leave, you should get a medical certificate from your family doctor (GP) as soon as possible to cover the days that you were sick and give this to your employer as soon as you return to work. In this way, the sick days will not count as annual leave and will be available to you at a later date.

An employer cannot require you to take annual leave for a certified period of illness. However, illness during the leave year will reduce the total number of hours you work and can therefore affect your entitlement to annual leave. While you are on sick leave from work you do not accumulate annual leave entitlement

Citizen information

anoda_username

underneath that states


Long-term sick leave and annual leave

In 2009 the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled in case C-350/06 that a worker who is on long-term sick leave during the leave year does not lose the right to annual leave. The ECJ ruling states that employees who have not worked during the leave year because they are on sick leave, are entitled to their statutory annual leave for that year. According to this ruling workers are entitled to accumulate annual leave while on sick leave.Many employers insist that you take your annual leave by a particular date, for example, the end of the calendar year. This ECJ ruling also applies to a worker who was on sick leave immediately before leaving the employment. This means that the worker would be entitled either to carry over, or receive payment for, annual leave which was not taken because the worker was on sick leave.The Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 states that the employee’s entitlement to annual leave is based on hours actually worked. Until this legislation is amended this ECJ ruling that an employee can accrue annual leave while on sick leave is not enforceable by employees in the private sector. However under the principle of ‘direct effect’ it does apply to the public sector and therefore workers in the public sector can accrue annual leave when they are off work on sick leave.Page updated: 14 August 2013

tatli_lokma

Yes it's only enforceable in the public sector. In the private sector it is a gray area and ultimately at the discretion of your employer.