I had a bad accident at work (thumb, circular saw). Been off nearly 5 months. Signed myself off and went back today. Looking at the holiday sheet and I find that I’ve lost the holidays I had booked before the accident. On talking to my MD he tells me that my remaining holidays may be scaled down due to the time I’ve been off. This doesn’t seem
right or fair to me. Anybody got valid comments/thoughts/advice? Cheers.

No – you accrue holiday while off sick. See https://www.gov.uk/taking-sick-leave.

The relevant bit is:

“Statutory holiday entitlement is built up (accrued) while an employee is off work sick (no matter how long they’re off).

Any statutory holiday entitlement that isn’t used because of illness can be carried over into the next leave year. If an employee is ill just before or during their holiday, they can take it as sick leave instead.”

Only thing to be aware is have you been paid for the holiday you would have taken (instead of being paid sick pay, which might have been less)? If so, you’ve used the holiday. But this would usually be something you’d discuss and agree with your employer.

EDIT – sorry to hear about the accident, hope you’ve made a full recovery!

You’re entitled up to 4 weeks of holidays back.

Do you have an employee handbook, as that sort of thing is usually covered in that, some companies honour hols and give them back, others don’t as it could potentially mean you’re off even more for this year, but they should honour full entitlement for this year, are your hols tax year or calendar year.

You still accrue holiday at the usual rate while off sick. There’s nothing to stop them readjusting your holiday whilst you’ve been away if the length of time was uncertain but you can just rebook it as normal. If any of your holiday fell while you were off sick then the onus would have been on you to speak to your employer about rearranging it as you may have still used holiday days booked while you were off.

Assuming you work a straightforward 5 day week, that is.

Did you have any holiday whilst you were on the sick, ie, go anywhere? If so, you may find that the company is within it’s right to make you take annual leave for that portion of the sickness.

I know its changed recently at ours to be apparently in line with Europe. We now only have to be given the minimum of holiday and if you have had it already or can still get it in then we loose leave. I cant remember what the amount is tho it may be 4 weeks.

Minimum 5.6 weeks total holiday entitlement for a 37.5 hour week, whether sick or not – although have you been on 1/2 pay or anything?

If so, you may find that the company is within it’s right to make you take annual leave for that portion of the sickness.

They can ask in order to help an employee reduce their sickness but they can’t force it.

Did you have any holiday whilst you were on the sick, ie, go anywhere? If so, you may find that the company is within it’s right to make you take annual leave for that portion of the sickness.

Nope, otherwise some folk would never have any ‘holiday’ 😉

You accrue holidays as normal

they only need to give you the statutory amount though, which includes banks holidays. 28 days(so 19 days minus your 9 bank holidays, less if they force you to take holidays beween xmas and new year and the like..)

Injured at work and then they try to nick your holidays?

Sounds to me like your injury has just become a life altering injury requiring a huge amount of compensation.

Unless I’m misunderstanding the op, he signed himself off for 5 weeks? That isn’t allowed, it needs an “unfit to work” note from the doc after 5 or 7 days. So is the MD actually saying you were AWOL, therefore I’m assuming the removal of 4 weeks holiday entitlement?

I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mean that as after 5 months he’d have been sacked.

As others note its clear you still acquire it [ as you do on maternity FWIW]
Bit of a strange one IMHO but the law is clear they owe you.

At my place, if you are sick you still accrue it, and if you had holiday booked it would be cancelled and credited back.

We even had a guy that took up the option of a year off on half pay (when the economy crashed) he went off to see the world for a year and when he came back he walked in, and they sent him straight back out to use the six weeks of leave he’d built up over the year off. He wasn’t very happy as he could’ve extended his stay on a remote tropical island and carried on surfing!

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/had-an-accident-at-work-advice-please

Reading the OPs original post on the subject I wonder if the conclusion of the investigation was that the injury was his fault. No idea if this changes the accrued leave whilst off work obligation.

Pure speculation mind – the Op needs to come back a give more info.

What a stupid law . So if I’m entitled to 4 weeks annual holiday and I am off sick for the first 11 months of the year I should come back and immediately take my 4 weeks ” entitlement” .

What a stupid law . So if I’m entitled to 4 weeks annual holiday and I am off sick for the first 11 months of the year I should come back and immediately take my 4 weeks ” entitlement” .

I have to say I do agree it doesn’t make much sense to me either when taken to extreems. It’s the same as maternity leave – accruing holiday whilst off work for a ‘lifestyle choice’.

Ramsey Neil – Member
What a stupid law . So if I’m entitled to 4 weeks annual holiday and I am off sick for the first 11 months of the year I should come back and immediately take my 4 weeks ” entitlement” .

yip. that’s exactly what my mum did after being off for a year recovering from a cancer operation, took her up yo her retirement date so she didn’t have to go back to work at all.

It’s perfectly correct.

Disagree with both Convert and Ramsey A year off sick is not likely to be a minor illness or injury and therefore people may well need a holiday prior to going back to work

No idea if this changes the accrued leave whilst off work obligation.

It doesn’t.

By law you’re entitled to paid annual leave, sickness you’re only entitled to statutory sick pay. So there is a law allows people to keep their 4 weeks annual leave fully paid if they are off for a length of time.

It doesn’t.

By law you’re entitled to paid annual leave, sickness you’re only entitled to statutory sick pay. So there is a law allows people to keep their 4 weeks annual leave fully paid if they are off for a length of time.

You are probably right. The reason I mention it was a colleague a few years ago who injured himself after removing the guards off a machine against company rules and the training he had received. By the letter of the company rules he should have been dismissed but he got away with a final written warning but I believe they reduced his sick pay entitlement whilst off. No idea if this was just from company enhanced to statutory or more or how it was done (compromise agreement, dismissed and re-employed or some other method). Knowing the HR bods it would have been above board and legit.

Hopefully his MD just doesn’t realise the way it’s supposed to work, and thinks you’re not supposed to accrue holiday whilst off sick, rather than actively being awkward.

Maybe, but unless there’s something he didn’t mention, he should have been protected from suffering that sort of injury due simply to momentary inattention on his part. It would in any case make no difference to the leave entitlement – any injury compensation would be a totally separate matter.

edit: again, unless he’s not telling us something or fibbing it’s completely different to your example – hard to see how he did anything which would result in disciplinary action.

Is all a bit daft.

I had a staff member who was off for six months, accruing hols. Came back to work but dropped to 2.5 days a week. Had accrued 15 days holidays, and was still entitled to them as whole days even tho now worked part time. I asked very nicely (didn’t force) that she take one day a week for four months partly as I didn’t think she was ready to come back anyway. Every situation is different and there may be further context here.

No dafter than women on maternity leave accruing holidays

So there is a law allows people to keep their 4 weeks annual leave fully paid if they are off for a length of time.

Please stop quoting 4 weeks annual leave – it is 5.6 weeks for a full-time person (assuming 37.5 hours).

Please stop quoting 4 weeks annual leave – it is 5.6 weeks for a full-time person (assuming 37.5 hours).

It is, but for most people it feels like it’s 4 weeks as it’s worked out as 20 days + bank holidays.

I worked in a place where you accrued an extra 2.5 hours of holiday per week because of the shift pattern. (Obviously you weren’t paid for those 2.5 hours.)

If you were off sick you didn’t accrue those hours so your holiday entitlement was adjusted accordingly. The statutory holiday entitlement was not affected.

Please stop quoting 4 weeks annual leave – it is 5.6 weeks for a full-time person (assuming 37.5 hours).

You can only accumulate a maximum of 4 weeks whist absent unless you’re employer has a different policy.