Under the European Working Time Directive, workers are entitled
to a minimum of four weeks' paid annual leave.
The UK Working Time Regulations provide for a more generous 5.6
weeks' paid annual holiday. Recent ECJ decisions on holiday
entitlement and sickness absence have expanded the statutory
provisions. It is now clear that workers on sick leave continue to
accrue holiday, and may carry over any accrued but untaken holiday
to a subsequent leave year if they could not take it due to
sickness.
The recent ECJ case of Neidel v Stadt Frankfurt am Main has now
confirmed that workers are only entitled to carry over four
weeks' annual leave accrued whilst on sickness absence. In
addition, on termination of employment, workers are entitled to be
paid in lieu of holiday accrued but not taken because of sickness.
However, this requirement only relates to the four weeks'
minimum leave prescribed by the European Working Time Directive. It
is up to member states to decide
