Annual Leave and Holiday Pay Policy - July 2026

7. Sickness and Holiday

Where an employee falls sick or is injured while on holiday, the Council will allow the employee to transfer to sick leave and take replacement holiday at a later time. This policy is subject to the following strict conditions:

• The total period of incapacity must be fully certificated by a qualified medical practitioner.

• The employee must contact the line manager by telephone, on the first day of any known period of incapacity during a holiday.

• The employee must submit a written request to his/her line manager no later than 14 calendar days after returning to work setting out how much of the holiday period was affected by sickness and the amount of leave that the employee wishes to take at another time.

• Where the employee is overseas when they fall ill or injured, evidence must still be produced that the employee was ill by way of either a medical certificate or proof of a claim on an insurance policy for medical treatment received at the overseas location.

• All costs of medical certification are to be incurred by the employee.

Where the employee fulfils all the above conditions, the Council will grant the employee the same number of days' replacement holiday leave in the current leave year as the number of holiday days lost due to sickness or injury. The replacement leave must be taken in the employee’s current leave year wherever practicable. Where carry over of leave is necessary due to the granting of replacement holiday leave, only the statutory element of any untaken leave may be carried over (with statutory annual leave being assumed to have been the first taken in any leave year).

If an employee is ill or injured before the start of a period of planned holiday, the Council may agree to the employee postponing the holiday dates to another mutually agreed time (in that leave year whenever possible). Any period of sickness absence will then be treated in accordance with the Council’s Sickness Absence Policy. The employee must request the postponement of the planned holiday with their line manager, and this must be accompanied by the relevant self-certification or doctors’ certification for the period of sickness absence.

An employee must request to take any replacement holiday in accordance with this policy and should endeavour to take the replacement holiday in the same holiday year in which it was accrued. However, where the line manager accepts that an employee has good reason for not being able to do so, the Council will allow the employee to carry the statutory element of any untaken leave forward into the next holiday year. The Council may require an employee to take all or part of their replacement holiday on particular days as determined by the line manager and service requirements. At least the minimum notice period under the Working Time Directive will be provided in such cases (i.e. twice the number of days’ notice of the period of leave).