Personal Leave

[Miss Prissy]

I have just missed 2 days work because of flooding (this region is now entitled to disaster relief funding). Am I entitled to personal leave or must it be classified as LWOP?

[Greg Schmidt]

Your employer is unlikely to approve Personal/Carer's Leave, because the Fair Work Act states that this form of paid leave is appropriate when either
(a) you, the employee, are suffering from a personal injury or illness which makes you unfit for work, or
(b) you, the employee, are required to provide care or support to a member of your immediate family or household because that person requires care or support either because they are ill/injured or because they are affected by an unexpected emergency.

A flood would count as an unexpected emergency. But in order to qualify for Personal/Carer's Leave you would probably need to demonstrate to your employer that YOU were not affected by the unexpected emergency but an immediate family member WAS affected and required your care and support as a consequence. This seems unlikely.

LWOP is more probable, but your employer may agree to you taking Annual Leave instead if you have Annual Leave available.