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Haulage firm fine
A SOUTH Yorkshire haulage firm has been ordered to pay a former worker £4,000 to cover holidays he missed while on long-term sick leave.
The former truck driver - who has not been named - worked for Tap Freight on Carlton Industrial Estate in Barnsley, but was signed off in 2001 suffering from a kidney complaint.
An Employment Tribunal heard he was often confined to a wheelchair and was unable to walk more than a few steps at a time.
He never returned to work, and his employment was only officially terminated in December 2009, eight years after he was first signed off work.
The company accepted liability to pay their employee for holidays accrued in the final year before his employment was terminated.
But a recent decision in the European Court of Justice means workers are now entitled to receive payment for all holidays they are unable to take due to sickness - for up to a maximum of six years.
Harry Eyre, Head of Employment Law for Barnsley law firm Raleys Solicitors, said: "This is quite an unusual case because of the length of the absence due to illness.
"But it does illustrate that employees are now entitled in law to payment in lieu of any holidays they are unable to take or carry forward up to a maximum of six years.
"In this case, the client had tried repeatedly to terminate his employment.
"It has not been uncommon for companies to leave employees who have effectively had to retire on the grounds of ill-health on the payroll for years.
"That's because once the period of liability to pay statutory sick pay ends, a business no longer has any financial obligation to someone who is absent long-term through sickness.
"From the point of view that this change in law gives workers who do find themselves on long-term sick leave some sort of financial protection, it is a positive thing."
Sadly, the employee who was awarded the cash lost his battle with illness shortly after the conclusion of the Employment Tribunal hearing.
His widow will get the money.
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