(1) The Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 is amended -

(a) in section 19, by the insertion of the following subsection:

"(1A) For the purposes of this section, a day that an employee was absent from work due to illness shall, if the employee provided to his or her employer a certificate of a registered medical practitioner in respect of that illness, be deemed to be a day on which the employee was -

(a) at his or her place of work or at his or her employer's disposal, and

(b) carrying on or performing the activities or duties of his or her work.",

(b) in section 20, by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (c) of subsection (1):

"(c) to the leave being granted -

(i) within the leave year to which it relates,

(ii) with the consent of the employee, within the period of 6 months after the end of that leave year, or

(iii) where the employee -

(I) is, due to illness, unable to take all or any part of his or her annual leave during that leave year or the period specified in subparagraph (ii), and