Holiday entitlement

[Shityshitybangbang]

Hi all. In 2023 I was absent from work for six months with cancer. My holiday entitlement got carried over to 2024. So 16 days for carried over. Now this year I have had 3 months off after having another operation. I’m due back at work I two weeks. So now I have 24 days all in to take. Including what’s left from this year.
i work In retail, so we are heading for our busy period. Can I ask for money instead of these holiday? I have no clue about any of this. I work for a large retail company

I think you're best off checking with your employer as to what their policy is with this.

Some employers might buy back a bit of leave from you, but they legally cannot buy any leave which would take you below the minimum legal level of annual leave entitlement

Yep, this.

DiliGaff · Today 14:02
Yes I thought this, I’m just about the minimum wage and work part time. 4 hours a day, mon-Thursday. I just feel a bit cheeky asking for the money as they have paid me right through my cancer absence. I’ll prob need to carry them over to next year.

Depends on what your work contract says - if it says they buy annual leave back from employees then ask for it. I wouldn't bring any kind of emotion into it, it's either a contractual obligation or it's not.

Hope you are well on the mend now.

No you're entitled to your accrued leave. I'd speak to them to ask them how best to take it if that will make you feel more comfortable

Was your full pay throughout your cancer treatment contractual or did they do it as goodwill? Only reason I ask is because although you are entitled to the unused annual leave if they've paid you in full out of goodwill I would be hesitant to ask to be paid for it.

mummyh2016 · Today 14:18
It was definitely good will as in my contract I’m only entitled to 6 weeks sick pay per year. So I’m thankful they paid me in full throughout. I know my manager had to fight with HR to get this.
That’s why I don’t really want to come across as cheeky asking for this.

I have been with the company 8 years

In that case I'd ask how they want you to take it and hopefully they'll suggest you carry it over. I wouldn't ask to be paid or ask directly to carry it over, by the sounds of it they've treated you very well.

Your manager should have kept their eye on this and ensured you took more leave in the first half of this year…!

Not necessarily if this operation and 3 months off wasn’t planned in.

Absolutely they should have. If OP carried over 16 days then the manager should have made every effort to ensure OP took 50% of her 2024 leave (if not more if Dec is a busy period), plus 16 days, before the end of June. Nothing to do with the operation. Just management 101!

No my operation wasn’t planned. They discovered another tumor and haven’t been back since the end of July. I had been due to take three weeks in August. But due to this I got my three weeks back.

Except that OP could easily (and has actually now said they DID actually) have a plan to have 3 weeks off later in the year, so immediately that would have been those 3 weeks gone.

As those holidays were booked in, no manager would have been concerned about leave not being taken or pressuring to take it early as a big chunk of those days off were already accounted for.

If OP didn’t see this surgery coming then the manager certainly didn’t!

Legally you can only carry over 4 weeks sick leave, and it has to be used within 18 months from the date it is carried over. But I agree to ask your manager how they want to deal with this. Given that they have been generous, this wouldn't be a hill I'd want to die on, because you never know when you might want that support again. I'm still reeling at the level of generosity - I don't often see that in the retail sector.

Legally you can only carry over 4 weeks sick leave, and it has to be used within 18 months from the date it is carried over.

There is no such law.

Except that OP could easily (and has actually now said they DID actually) have a plan to have 3 weeks off later in the year, so immediately that would have been those 3 weeks gone.

Yep, so OP would now be looking at a surplus of 15 rather than 24. Much easier for a manager to deal with.

have you actually gone back to work yet?

If not, would it be possible to list some of the days you’ve been off for as annual leave rather than sick pay? I’m thinking particularly the 16 days that were carried over from 2023.

Firstly very sorry to hear you’ve been ill and hope everything has gone well. Sounds like you are entitled to 6 weeks sick pay and they’ve given you 9 months sick pay in a 12 month period? Not sure I’d ask for money as they’ve already been very generous. Also depends - do they have a buy and sell holiday policy?

@Shityshitybangbang Just so I understand as I’m slightly confused you say your part time and do 4 hours a day. So are you classing 1 holiday day as 1 shift effectively? Or a full day I.e. something like 8 hours? only used to part time holiday being done in hours which is why I’m asking. If it’s the former I would see if you could take 1-2 days per week up to the end of your leave (whichever is most convenient for them) which would drop your potential carry over and give you a better transition back into work. I don’t think most employers would allow such a large carry over

There is - here's what ACAS say: "Employees on long-term sick leave can carry over 4 weeks' unused holiday entitlement, unless the employer allows more to be carried over. This holiday must be used within 18 months from the date it's carried over." https://www.acas.org.uk/checking-sick-pay/sick-pay-and-holiday-pay It's from European court judgements Stringer and others v HM Revenue and Customs sub nom Commissioners of Inland Revenue v Ainsworth and others; Schultz-Hoff v Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund [2009] IRLR 214 ECJ, and falls under the Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC) and reg.13 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/1833). As yet this has not been overturned by Brexit.

I presume you will now be able to find the law so that you don't tell people there is no such law again?

When you carry leave forward from one leave year to the next you have only 18 months to take it.
If you run out of sick pay you can take annual leave instead if sick leave to get paid for that leave.
Good luck.

You said carry over sick leave, not annual leave. So that poster was correct to point out there was no such law.
You also said only 4 weeks when actually it can be more with employer agreement.

Read it again - there is no law that says you can carry over sick leave.

I presume you will now be able to apologise and in future don't tell people there is such a law again?

Given they have been so generous already, I wouldn’t be asking personally. We had someone we supported through a break (wasn’t sick, would be outing to say what but she shouldn’t have been paid at all, we managed to get it paid, 6 months plus). She was incredibly grateful and didn’t take any of the AL she had accrued. When I checked she said she would be foregoing all of it. Given they’ve gone over and above in terms of sick pay, i’d personally use up a bit of the leave and let the rest go.