New holiday rules for sick leave workers

The European Court of Justice has ruled that workers on long-term sick leave are now entitled to receive paid holidays.

Under the new laws, when an employee returns to work they are now able to take all holidays they have accrued.

If they have any holidays owed to them at the end of the year, this time is carried over on to the next calendar - a benefit most working employees do not receive.

The decision has been criticised by many, including business group the CBI, which said it was a real blow.

Katja Hall, director of HR policy at the organisation, said: Businesses themselves also suffer when staff take sick leave and we had hoped that a compromise could have been achieved over unused holiday time.

A spokesperson for ClickAJob reacted with similar dismay.

A commercial business is not a charity and cannot afford to be, he maintained.

You do everything you can to support staff unfortunate enough to contract a long illness, and now this - to forward-thinking management who invest in their staff, it's adding insult to injury.

It also makes no sense - if managers kept on expensive machinery and didn't use it, shareholders would quickly complain, he continued.

Staff need to know that they're assets and deserving of consideration, but that cannot be a ticket to a gravy train.

A recent survey conducted by Minister Law Solicitors discovered that four out of ten employees in the UK worry about taking sick leave because it may jeopardise their job.