If an employee is signed off sick for a period of time....

[WildThong]

that includes public holidays, can the public holidays be claimed back upon return to work?

Don't think so, unless it's explicitly written into company policy. And any thresholds such as "reduced pay after xx days sick leave", you'd have to discount public holidays from those counts. Any annual leave they had booked before they went off sick, that would probably have to be given back to them.

Ok, thanks sandhorn

Bank holidays are actually a bit of a red herring when it comes to annual leave entitlement - people assume you get them automatically but that's not the case. Your contract of employment will state whether bank holidays are compulsory shutdown days for your post and whether they are part of your statutory holiday entitlement. If they are, and you are sick on a bank holiday, then yes you are entitled to take a different day in lieu of the date when you were sick. Here's the Acas guidance.

Thanks again, something I'll look into further