Full-time employees in Australia get 10 days of paid sick and carer's leave a year under the National Employment Standards. Part-time employees get it on a pro rata basis. Unused leave carries over from year to year, and casual employees don't get paid sick leave.
Sick leave and carer's leave come out of the same balance, which is also called personal leave or personal/carer's leave. Awards, agreements and contracts can give more. They can't give less.
How much paid sick leave do you get?
The yearly entitlement is 1/26 of your ordinary hours of work. For a full-time employee on 38 hours a week, that is 76 hours, or 10 days of 7.6 hours.
A part-time employee averaging 19 hours a week gets 38 hours. The spread of your hours doesn't change the total, so someone working 38 hours over four days builds up the same 76 hours as someone working them over five. Our guide to pro rata pay covers how part-time entitlements scale.
How does sick leave build up?
It accumulates gradually from your first day, based on your ordinary hours, and the balance at the end of each year carries over to the next. It keeps building while you are on paid leave, community service leave such as jury duty, and long service leave. It doesn't build up during unpaid leave, including unpaid parental leave.
You can take as much paid sick leave as you have accumulated, with no minimum or maximum for each absence.
When can you take paid sick leave?
When you can't work because of a personal illness or injury. The Fair Work Ombudsman says this can include stress and pregnancy-related illness.
Pre-arranged medical appointments and elective surgery are only covered if you are unfit for work because of an illness or injury, which depends on the circumstances. If you fall sick during annual leave, you can use paid sick leave for those days instead.
Is carer's leave part of sick leave?
Yes. Paid carer's leave comes out of the same balance. It covers caring for or supporting a member of your immediate family or household who is sick, injured or affected by an unexpected emergency. Depending on the circumstances, the Fair Work Ombudsman says an unexpected emergency can include having to pick up a child from school.
Once your paid balance runs out, you can take 2 days of unpaid carer's leave each time a family or household member needs care. Compassionate leave after a death or a life-threatening illness is a separate entitlement, covered in our guide to bereavement leave.
Do casual employees get paid sick leave?
No. All employees except casuals are entitled to paid sick and carer's leave. Casuals can take 2 days of unpaid carer's leave each time a family or household member needs care, and an employer can't take negative action against an employee for taking it.
Do you need a medical certificate?
Tell your employer as soon as possible, which can be after the leave has started, and say how long you expect to be off. Your employer can ask for evidence for as little as 1 day or less off work, and if you don't provide it when asked, you may not be paid.
A medical certificate and a statutory declaration are both examples of acceptable evidence. The test is whether the evidence would convince a reasonable person that you were entitled to the leave. Your award or agreement can set out when evidence is needed and what kind, as long as the request is reasonable.
The Fair Work Ombudsman doesn't consider it reasonable for an employer to go to a medical appointment with you unless you ask, or to contact your doctor for more information.
How much are you paid on sick leave?
Your base pay rate for the hours you would normally have worked. Incentive-based payments, bonuses, loadings, allowances, overtime and penalty rates are left out.
Say you work 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday on $1,200 a week, and lately you have been paid overtime to stay back on Wednesdays. Take a Wednesday off sick and you are paid $240 for your normal hours, with nothing for the overtime.
Is unused sick leave paid out when you leave?
No. The Fair Work Ombudsman says sick and carer's leave isn't paid out when employment ends. Unused annual leave is, as our guide to annual leave explains.
Can you be dismissed for being off sick?
If you can provide evidence of your illness or injury, you are protected from being dismissed because of your absence while you are away for less than 3 consecutive months, or less than 3 months in total over the last 12 months. You are also protected for as long as you are using paid sick leave.
That protection ends once your absence passes 3 months and your paid sick leave has run out. Other protections may still apply, including state and territory workers' compensation laws and unfair dismissal or general protections claims. Our guide to unfair dismissal payouts covers what a claim can lead to.
This is general information, not legal or financial advice.
Sources
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Sick and carer's leave (10 days, pro rata, carry over, carer's leave, unexpected emergencies, immediate family and household)
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Paid sick and carer's leave (1/26 of ordinary hours, the 76 and 38 hour examples, spread of hours, accumulation, stress and pregnancy-related illness, casuals)
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Payment for sick and carer's leave (base pay rate, the overtime example)
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Notice and medical certificates
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Unpaid carer's leave
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Long periods of sick leave (the 3-month protection)
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Payment for annual leave (sick during annual leave)
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Final pay (sick and carer's leave isn't paid out)
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