Should I Take Sick Time or Vacation After an Injury?

Personal Injury

In reasons for judgment delivered on November 19, 2014 in McCartney v. McArthur, Mr. Justice Bowen of the BC Supreme Court declined to award a plaintiff compensation for used vacation time while off recovering from his motor vehicle accident related injuries.

So the question is “Should I take sick time or vacation time after an injury?”  Will it make a difference to my settlement? In the case above, the Plaintiff missed a week of work and used up his vacation time during this period.  He was paid accordingly by his employer during the week off.

In finding that no claim for loss of income for this period can be advanced in his tort claim Mr. Justice Bowden provided the following brief reasons:

“[82] At the time of the accident the plaintiff was working about 32 hours a week at Oak Hills Woodcraft. He received a base salary of $1,200, plus a car allowance of $150 every two weeks, for a total of $1,350. He took seven days off after the accident; however, he used his vacation time for that time off and continued to receive his regular salary. In 2010 his income was $36,549 which is slightly more than he received in the years before the accident.

[83] The plaintiff seeks $1,181.25, representing his salary for the seven days that he did not work shortly after the accident when he used his vacation time. The plaintiff argues that by using seven days of his vacation entitlement he gave up something that should be compensated for as past wage loss…

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Perminder Tung
Partner – ICBC Car Accident & Personal Injury Law
Lindsay Kenney LLP – Langley law office