In Adams -v- Harwich International Port Ltd, the Employment Tribunal has held that an employee may carry over his full UK statutory holiday entitlement of 5.6 weeks if he is unwilling or unable to take that holiday during the holiday year due to sickness. This is a departure from the strict interpretation of the relevant law (the Working Time Directive) which only protects the minimum 4 weeks’ holiday provided for by the Directive.
Relying on the recent decisions of the European Court of Justice (Stringer and Pereda), the Tribunal held that it would be inconsistent with the law if the right to the additional 1.6 weeks’ holiday under the Working Time Regulations was denied to a worker prevented from taking leave due to sickness absence.
The Tribunal Judge commented that he was not persuaded that the right to carry forward untaken, paid annual leave was “open-ended” and, in fact, this issue was recently considered by the Employment Appeal Tribunal in the case of Fraser -v- St George’s NHS Trust, reported here.
