New Sick Leave - Some tips

There are some misconceptions around the new sick leave legislation, here are some tips for you:

Sick leave is paid time off work if an employee, their spouse, partner, dependent child, or other person who depends on them is sick or injured.

Minimum sick leave entitlements increased from 5 to 10 days per year from 24th July 2021.

All employees, including part-time and casual employees, are entitled to 10 days' sick leave per year if:

• they have six months’ current continuous employment with the same employer, or
• they have worked for the employer for six months for:an average of 10 hours per week, and
• at least one hour in every week or 40 hours in every month.

But they work part time!

No, sick leave entitlements are not prorated in any way. For example, even if a part-time employee only works three days a week, they still get 10 days’ sick leave a year and can accumulate up to 20 sick days a year.

Do I need to update any agreements?

Yes, The increase of employee sick leave from 5 to 10 days is effective from 24 July this year, and will be applicable for each staff member from their next entitlement date. You will need to find out when those entitlement dates are (from Payroll), and create a variation to employment agreement.

This is also your opportunity to update any other changes that you've made for your people, for example role promotions, pay rises, allowances, flexible working arrangements etc.