Labour Court rejects Elizabeth Powderly’s annual leave appeal against Sodexo

The Labour Court disallowed Elizabeth Powderly’s appeal over annual leave accrued while she was on certified sick leave, finding the complaint not well founded. In a determination dated 30 August 2017, it affirmed the Adjudication Officer’s decision against her complaint. Powderly had been on sick leave from February 2013 until she resigned from Sodexo Ireland Ltd in January 2016. Sodexo paid her 7½ days’ holiday pay when her employment ended. She argued she was entitled to payment for 30 days, including leave accrued during sick leave before a change in the law took effect on 1 August 2015. Sodexo argued the new accrual rule applied only from that date. The Court held that the 2015 amendment could not apply to periods before it took effect. It also rejected Powderly’s argument that EU law allowed the earlier law to be interpreted to give her the claimed entitlement. Under that law, annual leave accrued through time actually worked, and the interpretation she sought would conflict with that rule.