Rescheduling leave

Workers who fall sick during scheduled annual leave can reschedule their annual leave within the same leave year (Pereda v Madrid Movilidad SA [2009] IRLR 959). In this case the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) concluded that an employer cannot force a worker to take annual leave when off work sick, so they must be able to redesignate their statutory annual leave as sick leave. They can then take the unused holiday at a later time when they are fit to work (assuming they can provide the necessary medical evidence to confirm their incapacity). This is because, under the Working Time Directive, the purpose of annual leave is to enable workers to have a period of rest away from work (rather than a period of “relaxation and leisure”) whereas the purpose of sick leave is to enable a worker to recover from illness.