Employers might consider reviewing, for example, whether workers ought to continue to be permitted to “self certify” illnesses although this also an added administrative and management burden for them. These are consequences most likely unintended by the ECJ in making its judgment.

For the second time this year, the ECJ has now exacerbated the dire economic circumstances most employers face by adding to already crippling employment obligations and costs when, more than ever, relaxation of these is desperately craved. In response, the CIPD has raised the not unreasonable question why workers shouldn’t put illness suffered on holiday down to “bad luck” – particularly when employers already accept the risk that workers will be sick during “working time”. For many, the rationale of the judgment is difficult to accept. It is, however, the law and employers might at present be forgiven for asking “What next?”

John Lee
Head of Employment Law
t: 0131 226 8216
john.lee@mbmcommercial.co.uk