As reported last week, following two European Court of Justice rulings, employees who fall ill while on holiday may be able to reschedule their leave. But what are these rulings and how might they impact employers?

In the most recent case, Vicente Pereda v Madrid Movilidad SA , the ECJ ruled that national provisions or collective agreements which provided that a worker who was sick during a period of scheduled annual leave did not have the right, after his recovery, to take his annual leave at another time were unlawful, and, therefore, workers who fell sick while on holiday should be allowed to reschedule their leave.

This followed an earlier ruling in the long-running Stringer v HMRC case that workers can accrue holiday pay while on sick leave and must be allowed to take it on their return or be paid in lieu if their employment ends.

Commenting on the Stringer v HMRC  ruling,  Tim Marshall, a partner at DLA Piper, stated that: “the ECJ's judgment has potentially serious financial and practical ramifications for employers.” He also commented that employees must ensure they manage sickness absence effectively and efficiently as allowing absence “to continue longer than is necessary will see workers 'racking-up' substantial holiday entitlement. This could create significant financial liabilities and, where employees seek to take significant periods of holiday following extended sick leave, it could also cause severe disruption to the business.”

In a recent article in Personnel Today, employment lawyer Alex Lock observed that the additional ECJ ruling, allowing workers who fall ill while on annual leave to retake those holiday days at a later date, will be a “costly blow” to companies. "Sickness absence already costs British business billions of pounds each year, with the average worker absent for around 10 days,” he stated. “This judgment, allowing workers to carry over holiday days where they coincide with illness, will add further to this cost.” He also commented that: “businesses will face an increased administrative burden in keeping track of accumulated annual leave for employees on long-term sickness absence.”

The most efficient and effective way to keep track of employee leave and monitor and manage employee absence in the light of these two ECJ rulings is to implement an accurate, automated leave management system in your organisation. You can find out more here.