Bank holidays / sick leave query - any HR professionals, please help!

[71HourAchmed]

Bit confused over advice from our HR dept (they said one thing first and then totally contradicted themselves).

I was off sick from early November to late January. We complete daily timesheets, and for the 24/25/26 Dec (we get an extra day on 24 Dec) and 1 January, my timesheet was recorded as holiday, and these days have been deducted from my holiday entitlement.

I'm confused, as I understood that the recent EU court cases on this suggested that holiday falling when you were off sick could be reclaimed.

I am aware that these are public holidays, and for the avoidance of doubt, our holiday entitlement specifically includes these days as holiday entitlement. Our policy regarding bank holidays also says that when a bank holiday cannot be taken on the day it falls, it must be taken within the same holiday year.

I'm happy to PM people with the exact wording of the policy, just don't want to do it on here.

I think that per our policies, I should be entitled to these days back, which HR originally agreed with. However, they've now come back to me saying that I'm not - any advice please?

I don't know what the law is. I agree, if you had AL leave booked and were off sick you get that back, but I'd be amazed if the same applies to bank holidays.

I used to have to book bank hols straight from my annual leave allowance and was given them back when off sick.

The thing is, our holiday entitlement specifically includes bank holidays, so I don't understand why they are differentiating. They have confirmed if it were normal AL it wouldn't have been deducted, and it's not like we get extra pay or anything for bank holidays

Yes you can claim the days back, but the period of sickness must have been 'confirmed', so to speak, but a Fitnote. If you were off for so long they should have the note. Get on to HR and ask for them back.

by a Fitnote.

Oodear that's what normally happens here, but they started auto populating timesheets with bank holidays, and HR completed my timesheets while I was off sick, recording it as sick leave not holiday

Where I work it specifically says in our annual leave policy that staff sickness during bank holidays doesn't entitle us to have the day back to us again whereas sickness during annual leave does as long as we have a certificate from the doctor/hospital. Can you get a copy of your employer's annual leave policy and look in there? If you have a company intranet it could also be on there, I know ours is.

Sorry should have clarified - this right to claim back leave applies only to the 4 weeks statutory entitlement (the additional 1.6 weeks statutory leave is a UK statutory right, while the right to claim back comes from a European ruling. Confusing much?!
So, if you had already taken 20 days leave by that time you could not claim them back. If you had taken less than that you could claim them back.

So.. My GP recently gave me a sick note for 2 weeks. The date he wanted to see me back I told him i was on a planned holiday. He altered my sick note dates, reducing them to when my holiday starts.
Is there a legal reason that he would not give me a sick note until the appointment he booked to see me again? Does anyone know?

It just makes sense, have some sick leave which will hopefully have you feeling better, take your holiday and have some chill time and then return to work.