Labour Court upholds recommendation in Keelings worker’s sick-pay dispute

The Labour Court upheld a recommendation in a worker’s appeal over Keelings Logistics Solutions’ refusal to pay sick pay during an absence for elective surgery. In a decision dated 26 February 2019, it found the worker had set the surgery during the business’s peak holiday period and had not engaged with the employer early enough. Keelings had told him in advance that the absence would not qualify for sick pay. The Court concluded that excluding the absence from the scheme was not unreasonable. The worker was a warehouse operative represented by the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union.