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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    34

    Default Sick Leave policy in Sydney

    Hi, HR Professional,

    I am work for HR for Asia Pacific for more than 20 years, but no in sydney, my new job need to cover the region of our Sydney, my task now is writing up a HR policy for the office, and would like to seek for all of your advise.

    For Sick leave,
    normally it will put under the Personal/carer leave under Sydney / Australia's practice, right ?
    10 days per year ?
    Can we asked staff to submit "Sick leave certificate/ Doctor 's slip " to support their sick leave taken ?

    what is the reasonable duration if we asked for the sick leave certificate.

    in HK., we will normally need it if they sick more than 2 days,
    for sick leave only 1 day, we can let them have a quota to have 1 day per month.
    more than 1 day in a month, they must submit with a valid "Sick leave certificate" , if not, will deducted from their Annual leave accurals or LWOP.

    Can this model also applied in Sydney ?

    Please share , thanks


  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Sydney, NSW
    Posts
    6

    Default

    Hi Elaine,

    To answer your questions:

    - For Sick leave,
    normally it will put under the Personal/carer leave under Sydney / Australia's practice, right ?
    << That's correct. This covers personal leave (employee sick day), carers leave (employee's immediate family sick and needs to be taken care of such as partner, wife, girlfriend, child, parent).

    - 10 days per year ?<< That's correct

    - Can we asked staff to submit "Sick leave certificate/ Doctor 's slip " to support their sick leave taken ?<< Yes employers can

    - what is the reasonable duration if we asked for the sick leave certificate. << In most companies I work for, two consecutive days require a certificate. This is considered as the "reasonable" period to ask for a certificate. Although some companies may have additional policies such as Monday and/or Friday sick leave MUST be accompanied by certificate.

    - in HK., we will normally need it if they sick more than 2 days,
    for sick leave only 1 day, we can let them have a quota to have 1 day per month.
    more than 1 day in a month, they must submit with a valid "Sick leave certificate" , if not, will deducted from their Annual leave accurals or LWOP.

    Can this model also applied in Sydney ?
    << In my current employer, the limit to have sick leave without certificate is two days in a year, again this is totally employer's judgement call. I somehow think you may need to be more careful about deducting employee's annual leave for this matter. I would personally recommend creating an "unpaid personal leave" to cover this to avoid any angry employee going to fairwork ombudsman. Good luck.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    34

    Default

    Jennifer, thank you for your reply, it's help me a lot, thanks

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    34

    Default

    can the personal / carer leave carried forward to next succeeding year if he/she can not used up ALL the 10 days per year ? if not, can we just forefieted by end of Dec 31 and grant them another 10 days by Jan 1 next year ?

    Thanks

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Sydney, NSW
    Posts
    6

    Default

    Hi Elaine,

    Please follow the link below which is a clause rergarding your query in fair work act 2009:

    Fair Work Act 2009

    See the Division 7 Subdivision A Clause 96(2). It will state that the accrual should be continuous from year to year. I'm assuming this clause was intended so that in case of worst scenario happens where an employee has to be hospitalised in a long period of time, they will have the security of their company still paying their salary.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    34

    Default

    Jennifer,

    Thank again for your help.

    I think every company in sydney need to have a very good maintain record to keeping all the difference leave accural for the employees, right ?

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Sydney, NSW
    Posts
    6

    Default

    Hi Elaine,

    If we are talking about a volume of 500 employees maximum, it will probably be reasonable enough to manage that in a simple manual spreadsheet. However, anything above that number will at least need a proper payroll/HR system to ensure automated accrual is happening.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    456

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Elaine Li View Post
    can the personal / carer leave carried forward to next succeeding year if he/she can not used up ALL the 10 days per year ? if not, can we just forefieted by end of Dec 31 and grant them another 10 days by Jan 1 next year ?

    Thanks
    Unused personal/carer leave (what we all used to call "sick leave") accumulates, however it is not "paid out" when someone leaves your company.

    Unfortunately, some people abuse personal leave, they treat it as extra annual leave and take a "sickie" when there is not in fact anything wrong with them and they just fancied an extra day off.

    Conscientious employees are unlikely to do this, which to my mind is wise, because you never know when you might need it (the accumulated personal leave that is).

    I gather a large proportion of the people Toyota retrenched in Melbourne last week were people who regularly took personal leave adjacent to a long weekend!

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Hong Kong
    Posts
    34

    Default

    Unused personal/carer leave (what we all used to call "sick leave") accumulates, however it is not "paid out" when someone leaves your company. ===> Understood.

    Thanks Moz.

  10. #10

    Default

    Elaine what type of professionals will you be hiring?

    They may be covered under an "Award", which prescribes certain working conditions under legislation. Some awards allow for sick leave to be paid out on termination (I know our ECA allows for this)

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