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.