CIPD Criticizes Sick Leave Ruling
25 September 2009According to Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the recent judgment of the European Court of Justice permitting workers to claim extra leave in case they fall ill in course of holidays is a highly impractical decision.
Senior Public Policy Adviser at the CIPD Ben Wilmot added that this ruling is not only irrational but also puts the employers in a disadvantageous position. He also went on to say that the ruling does not conform to the real world norms.
Wilmot added that employers run the risk of allowing employees to take false sick leaves because of this judgement. The employers should not be made liable for compensating the employees who fall sick during holidays with extra leaves, when people usually fall ill by sheer stroke of ill luck and not for their employers’ negligence.
This will not only put an extra burden on the employers but also encourage unscrupulous employees to fabricate sickness when on holidays and get extra holidays that they can even carry forward to the following year.
Wilmot also said that the biggest problem with the decision is that it might lead to a situation where even good employers will try to reconsider their present occupational sick pay schemes and switch to Statutory Sick Pay schemes. This could not have been the intention of the legislature at all.
The employers should practically try and make their policies on absence absolutely clear, so that the employees make sure that they ring their offices to inform about their sickness while they are on holiday and ensure that they keep their line manager updated on their status on a daily basis.
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