Hi everyone,

I need some advice. I am currently 31 weeks pregnant and work in a nursery with children from 18 months to 3 years. The job is very physical and up until last week I was working 10 hour days. I have had problems with my back and pelvis and my dr suggested I should reduce my working hours to 50%. I felt I was still able to do more than this so we agreed on 75%.

I get 5 weeks paid holiday a year and it is compulsory that it is taken when the school is closed (including 3 weeks in august).My dr wrote me a sick note up to the day my 3 week holiday starts and said that we would review after that. I am currently receiving sick pay for the 25% I am not working and am entitled to this for 8 weeks. My boss is now saying that I need another sick note for the holidays as sick pay will form part of my holiday pay. This doesn't seem right to me as I feel I am entitled to that holiday anyway, and it means that should I need a further sick note my 8 weeks will be up before my due date and therefore I will lose out if I need to stop work before I go into labour.

Does anyone know if sick pay should form part of my holiday pay??

Thanks,

Lucy

Sounds like your employer is doing you a favour in a way - in Switzerland, if you are sick during your holidays, it's not counted as holiday so you don't lose those days.

I agree with Sandgrounder. The same happened to me when I was pregnant. I was working 100% and then got a 50% sick note from the Dr. This meant I could take 2 days off and only lose 1 holiday day. By taking 25% of your holidays as sick leave you still have 25% of your holidays to use as you like (or in the allowed times!)

The same rule applies when you're not pregnant too. Even if you are already on holiday, if you get sick and get a doctors note, they should change the holiday leave to sick leave so you can take your holiday later.