Sickness absence and sick pay - a guide for trade unions and working people (December 2018)

Chapter 3

Leave or sickness absence?

[ch 3: page 77]

Workers can make the choice to take statutory annual leave while they are off sick (Stringer and Others v Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, CJEU case C-520/06). That principle was reaffirmed in a case involving a Polish teacher on “convalescent leave” (Sobczyszyn v Szkoła Podstawowa w Rzeplinie [2016] EUECJ C-178/15). Holiday taken during sickness absence must be paid at the normal rate of pay, it makes no difference that rights to contractual and statutory sick pay may have been exhausted.


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