Sick and Carers Leave

Sick and carer's leave (also known as personal leave or personal / carer's leave) lets an employee take time off to help them deal with personal illness, caring responsibilities and family emergencies.

Sick leave can be used when an employee is ill or injured.

An employee may have to take time off to care for an immediate family or household member who is sick or injured or help during a family emergency. This is known as carer's leave but it comes out of the employee's personal leave balance.

An immediate family member is a:

  • spouse or former spouse

  • de facto partner or former de facto partner

  • child

  • parent

  • grandparent

  • grandchild

  • sibling, or

  • child, parent, grandparent, grandchild or sibling of the employee's spouse or de facto partner (or former spouse or de facto partner).

This definition includes step-relations (eg. step-parents and step-children) as well as adoptive relations.

A household member is any person who lives with the employee.

Paid

An employee can take paid sick leave when they can't work because of a personal illness or injury. This can include stress and pregnancy related illnesses.

An employee can take paid carer's leave to care for or support a member of their immediate family or household who is sick, injured or has an unexpected emergency.

All employees except casuals are entitled to paid sick and carer's leave. This entitlement comes from the National Employment Standards.

Employees may have to give notice or evidence to get paid for sick and carer's leave.

Sick and carer's leave comes under the same leave entitlement. It's also known as personal / carer's leave.

The yearly entitlement is based on an employee’s ordinary hours of work and is 10 days for full-time employees, and pro-rata for part-time employees. This can be calculated as 1/26 of an employee’s ordinary hours of work in a year.

Full-time and part-time employees accumulate sick and carer's leave during each year of employment. It starts accumulating from an employee's first day of work and is based on their ordinary hours of work.

The balance at the end of each year carries over to the next year.

Sick and carer's leave accumulates when an employee is on:

  • paid leave such as annual leave and sick and carer's leave

  • community service leave including jury duty

  • long service leave.

Sick and carer's leave doesn’t accumulate when the employee is on:

  • unpaid annual leave

  • unpaid sick or carer's leave

  • unpaid parental leave

  • unpaid family and domestic violence leave.

Unpaid

All employees, including casual employees are entitled to 2 days unpaid carer’s leave.

Employees get 2 days unpaid carer’s leave each time an immediate family member or household member of the employee needs care and support because of:

  • illness

  • injury or

  • an unexpected emergency.

Full-time and part-time employees can only get unpaid carer’s leave if they don’t have any paid sick / carer’s leave left.

Unpaid carer’s leave can be taken:

  • in 1 continuous period (eg. 2 working days in a row) or

  • in separate periods as agreed between the employee and employer (eg. 4 half days could be taken in a row).

An employer can’t take negative action against an employee for taking unpaid carer’s leave.

Attending medical appointments and elective surgery

Medical appointments and elective surgeries that are pre-arranged are not covered by Personal/Carer’s Leave, unless the employee is not able to work because of a personal illness or injury. It will depend on each individual circumstance.

An employer can ask for evidence from an employee to confirm that they were unfit for work. This can help decide if an employee should be paid sick leave or be paid a different type of leave or entitlement.

Protection from dismissal while on sick leave

Employees who are away from work temporarily because they're sick or injured may be protected from being dismissed.

To be protected from dismissal during a temporary absence from work:

  • the total time away due to illness or injury must be less than 3 consecutive months, or a total of less than 3 months over a 12 month period

  • employees can be taking paid, unpaid or a combination of paid and unpaid sick leave during their absence

  • employees need to provide evidence of their illness or injury.

When an employee is away for longer than 3 months

An employee is no longer protected from being dismissed (even if they provide evidence) if:

  • the total length of their absence due to illness or injury is more than 3 consecutive months, or a total of more than 3 months over a 12 month period

  • over that period they’ve only taken unpaid leave, or they’ve taken a combination of paid and unpaid leave.

Employees who take a period of sick leave that is paid the whole time are protected from dismissal regardless of how long they're on leave.

Employers must still follow the appropriate rules for carrying out a dismissal and employees may challenge the termination of their employment by:

  • making an unfair dismissal application if the reason for the dismissal is harsh, unjust or unreasonable

  • making a general protections claim if the reason for the dismissal is another protected reason, or

  • making a claim under a state or federal anti-discrimination law.

You can find more on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.