1. Careers
your questions answered
❱❱ Is it true that employees can now claim back
holiday if they are sick while away?
Over the last 12 months a number of place at the Leeds Employment Tri- people on
court cases have examined workers’ bunal. The tribunal further held that it the move
© luDovIC RHoDES
rights to annual leave and how this is was possible to interpret the Working
affected by absence due to sickness Time Requirements to not only permit ❱❱ DaviD Brown
in accordance with the European a worker to rearrange holiday missed Sir David Brown, the first presi-
Working Time Regulations (1998). due to illness but also to carry over dent of the CQI, has joined the BSI
In June 2009 the House of annual leave into the next year. board as non-executive director.
Lords, following the Euro- While the Confederation of British David, a chartered engineer, was
pean Court of Justice, Industry has revealed that annual formerly chairman of Motorola uK,
ruled in Stringer v sickness rates in the UK are currently president of the Federation of Elec-
HMRC that paid the lowest for 20 years, 180 million tronics Industry and president of
annual leave is sick days were taken in 2009 and the Institution of Electrical Engi-
a fundamental businesses should ensure that they neers. He was knighted in 2001 for
right and that are prepared and can budget for the services to British industry.
being sick impact of these decisions.
should not stop Aside from preparing for the worst, ❱❱ Sam Younger
employees ac- another option for businesses is to try The Charity Commission, the in-
cruing holiday. to combat sickness absence in the dependent regulator of charities in
Essentially this first place. It is worthwhile approach- England and Wales, has appointed
means that staff ing sickness absence like any other Sam younger CBE as its new chief
previously prevent- problem and start by collecting and executive. He will take up the ap-
ed from taking holiday analysing data – is sickness higher in pointment from 1 September 2010.
because they were on a particular department or at a certain Sam previously worked as director
long-term sick leave are now time of year? general of the British Red Cross.
entitled to accrue and take paid an- You could then perform a root
nual leave. However, the court also cause analysis of sick leave examining ❱❱ KYung HuH
held that employers could not force factors that could contribute to high- Kyung Huh has been appointed
workers to take annual leave while levels of sickness such as problems as the president of the Korean
they are on long-term sick leave. with the working environment, work National Committee of the Inter-
This case was followed in Septem- with no scope for personal autonomy, national Electrotechnical Commis-
ber 2009 by the European case of management that is not held account- sion. The IEC is responsible for
Pereda v Madrid Movidad, where the able for attendence levels or no pro- creating international quality and
ECJ ruled that if a worker falls ill dur- fessional occupational health input. safety standards for electrical and
ing a pre-arranged period of annual The next step is to test whether any electronic technologies. Kyung is
leave then he or she should be able of the contributing factors do affect also the principle administrator of
to designate an alternative period as sickness absence and then identify the Korean Agency for Technology
leave. This has opened up the pos- actions that would have the greatest and Standards.
sibility that workers may be entitled to impact on rectifying these. Bench-
reclaim leave missed due to illness. marking against examples of best ❱❱ Dale aDKiSSon
In February 2010 the first UK case practice and performing gap analyses Dale Adkisson has been named as
to consider the Pereda ruling took are also useful exercises. the global quality head of India’s
largest drugmaker, Ranbaxy. Dale,
formerly the quality assurance
director of the company’s uS divi-
sion, has been appointed to over-
please email your useful links see the quality and manufacturing
career questions www.businesslink.gov.uk standards in Ranbaxy laboratories
and job moves to www.cipd.co.uk to resolve the company’s long-run-
editorial@thecqi.org www.direct.gov.uk ning regulatory troubles in the uS.
52 | July 2010 | qw www.thecqi.org
p52_CareersQWJuly10.indd 56 17/6/10 12:00:32