Q: We have an employee who has been away from work on ACC since mid-March.

He has just had surgery this week, which ACC have declined to fund as they deemed it not related to the initial ACC injury claim.

He has used all his sick leave, and has elected to have the remaining time off as Leave Without Pay.

He currently has 6.68 weeks of entitled Annual Leave, and our HR team are advising the employees manager that if they can’t reach agreement that we will direct the employee to take Annual Leave.

A: If the employee has exhausted their sick leave entitlement, they can ask to use annual holiday entitlement (if the employer agrees).

The employer can at any time use section 19 and give the employee not less than 14 days’ notice to take their annual leave so technically they can be force to use their leave even in this situation.