Annual Leave/holiday

[bednobs]

hi, in my job i have a 30 days annual leave a year PLUS bank holidays total (40 days) p.a. leave year runs from april to march
i was off sick in hospital from 1st april 2012 until i had a baby on 13th April 2013, upon which date my maternity leave started. Mat leave finished last week and i'm now taking all of the annual leave.
HR are telling me that because i was sick during Easter 2012, i can't add those days onto my leave as if you are sick on a bh you can't take it another time (as you can with annual levae)
is that right?
Ps i understand i'm quibbling over 1 day when i am in fact very lucky to have mat leave and so much leave and it probably sounds annoying to moan about the loss of 1 day

[baza]

were you off certificated sick over the bank holiday?

[bednobs]

yes

[baza]

then you should be able to claim the time owed, many companies honour a doctors certificate but not a self certificate.

[ojread2]

Was your baby born on its' due date, or pretty near it?
Your employer can start your mat leave any time from 36 weeks if s/he likes if you go sick.
In fact, IIRC, you can't go sick during the last 4 weeks, it's auro mat leave

[ojread2]

auto not auro

[bednobs]

no, she was 10 weeks early, so mat leave did not start

[ojread2]

Actually, im a year out as well unless, the OP has written dates wrong?

[ojread2]

Bednobs, your baby hasn't been born yet ;-)

This could be worth a call to ACAS as I've never come across this before
they're there to answer questions like this

[factor-fiction]

This is interesting and I'm struggling to get my head around the issue.

If your holiday entitlement (inc bank holiday entitlement) was equal to the statutory minimum I think I would agree.

However where holidays comfortably exceed the statutory minimum it doesn't feel quite right to me that missed bank holidays (because of sickness) can be taken later. Ignoring the maternity issue (and I realise that maybe I shouldn't as it may be treated differently in law), if a male employee had planned to take a week off (including Christmas Day and Bank Holiday) and books 3 days' holidays over Christmas but is then certified sick for a week I'd have thought he could only claim 3 days' holiday back for later rather than claim an entitlement to a full week off later.

I don't know the answer but I feel it may not be as straightforward as has been suggested so far, but I'll be interested to see what others say and am happy to be shown to be wrong.

[DangerUXD]

You cannot claim time in leu for being sick on a bank holiday, that would be rediculous.

[Shazza36]

I had similar circumstances and same leave entitlement as you, I did not get the bank holiday entitlement because i was off sick but i was paid sick pay for that day so didn't expect to be paid twice for the same day which would be the case if you had it in lieu. Or have I misunderstood?

[bednobs]

yes shazza, when you put it like that it males sense. I think it's just because if you are sick on a/l you can reclaim the a/l and get paid as dick where i work, and i thought BH would be tret the same

[DangerUXD]

Bank holidays are not leave, they are not connected to your employment like annual leave is, they are statutory holidays.