Sick Pay And Bank Holidays

[Im a BusyBee]

I have been off sick for a few months and company policy is that I get 13 weeks full sick pay which has now finished. During those first 13 weeks we had 4 bank holidayswhich I would normally be paid for and also 4 days holiday booked prior to me becoming sick. Should I have recieved an extra 8 days pay for these holidays or not as they fall within my 13 weeks sick pay?

[mccfluff]

You should still have the 4 days holiday to take. Im not sure on the bank holidays though

[paulllambert]

I think that the four holiday days, plus the bank holidays will be (or should be) put back into your "holiday bank", meaning you should be entitled to an extra eight days paid holiday upon your return to work.

[jd_1984]

IMHO it would be a very poorly drafted set of T&C's that would allow this, as it would put an employee into the position of being able to say "Sorry I was ill on the Bank Holiday, I'll take another day instead". It also makes no logical sense - surely Bank Holidays fall on fixed dates, not days to be taken at will. Sory if this seems insensitve but I have answered this with my "work head" on. If you were a friend I would likely tell you to address the issue with the HR manager and perhaps your company will award extra days off. But dont hold your breath!

[factor-fiction]

This is an issue that it can be difficult to get your head round.

I can see why jd might think the answer is no. If the sick pay covered 12 months could someone have a year off sick and then claim he is owed 8 days for the bank holidays he missed? It may seem odd but I think the answer is yes he would, plus any holidays he would have accrued and didn't take because he was sick.

The bank holidays and annual holiday entitlements need to be added together to give a total figure. These accrue pro rata during the sickness absence.

So I think in 3 months Im a Busy bee will have accrued one quarter of the year's total holiday entitlement. If the annual entitlement is 30 days, say, including bank hols, then he/she will have accrued one-quarter of this- 7 days- while off sick.

This all seems a bit hard on employers to me though

[mccfluff]

thinking about it, you need to check you T&C's on long term sick - over 4 weeks employees stop accruing holiday pay at our place

[factor-fiction]

I think the law on this was clarified a year or so ago on this. According to the gov.uk site
https://www.gov.uk/taking-sick-leave:

"Statutory holiday entitlement is built up (accrued) while an employee is off work sick (no matter how long they’re off).

Any statutory holiday entitlement that isn’t used because of illness can be carried over into the next leave year."

I think the key word here though may be 'statutory' (statutory holidays being 5.6 weeks paid holiday per year including public/bank holidays)- so if the company actually offers more holidays then maybe they only have to honour up to the statutory figure,