Sickness is no holiday

Employees who fall ill during their annual leave are entitled to reclaim their holidays to make up for the days they’ve missed, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled.

In Pereda v Madrid Movilidad SA: C-277/08, the court considered the case of a specialist driver, Vicente Pereda, who had to take six weeks off his job in Madrid as the result of an accident. This overlapped with his annual leave. His employer refused his request for further holidays once he had recovered. The court found that Pereda was entitled to his annual leave at a time that did not coincide with his being on sick leave, under the Working Time Directive.

The court’s judgment stated: “It is...common ground that the purpose of the entitlement to paid annual leave is to enable the worker to rest and to enjoy a period of relaxation and leisure. The purpose of the entitlement to sick leave is different. It is given to the worker so that he can recover from being ill.”

The judgment concluded: “[T]he answer to the question referred is that Article 7(1) of Directive 2003/88 must be interpreted as precluding national provisions or collective agreements which provide that a worker who is on sick leave during a period of annual leave scheduled in the annual leave planning schedule of the undertaking which employs him does not have the right, after his recovery, to take his annual leave at a time other than that originally scheduled, if necessary outside the corresponding reference period.”