Personal Leave & Carer's Leave — How Many Sick Days Per Year in Australia?
How many sick days do you get per year in Australia? Full guide to personal/carer's leave entitlements, accumulation, evidence requirements, and what to do if your employer refuses paid sick leave.
How Many Sick Days Do You Get? — The NES Entitlement
Under the National Employment Standards (NES), all permanent employees (full-time and part-time) are entitled to 10 days of paid personal/carer's leave per year. For full-time employees working 38 hours per week, this equates to 76 hours per year. For part-time employees, the entitlement is calculated on a pro-rata basis — for example, a part-time employee working 20 hours per week receives 10 days × (20/38) = approximately 5.26 days (or about 52.6 hours) per year. Personal/carer's leave is a single entitlement that can be used for two purposes: personal leave (when you are unfit for work due to illness or injury) and carer's leave (when you need to care for an immediate family member or household member who is ill, injured, or experiencing an unexpected emergency). The entitlement accrues progressively during the year based on your ordinary hours of work and accumulates from year to year without any cap. This means if you do not use your personal leave, it rolls over indefinitely. An employee who has worked for the same employer for 10 years without taking sick leave would have 100 days accumulated. This accumulated balance provides a vital safety net in case of serious illness — a point often overlooked when comparing employment types. Casual employees are NOT entitled to paid personal/carer's leave under the NES, though they can take 2 days of unpaid carer's leave per occasion.
When Can You Use Personal Leave vs Carer's Leave?
Personal leave (sick leave) can be taken when you are not fit for work because of a personal illness or injury. This includes physical illness (cold, flu, infections, chronic conditions), physical injury (back pain, sports injuries, accidents), mental health conditions (anxiety, depression, stress — these are fully recognised grounds for personal leave), medical or dental appointments (if they cannot reasonably be scheduled outside work hours), and recovery from surgery or medical procedures. Carer's leave can be taken when you need to provide care or support to an immediate family member or a member of your household who requires care because of a personal illness or injury, or an unexpected emergency. Immediate family includes your spouse or de facto partner, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling, as well as the same relations of your spouse. A household member is anyone who lives in your house. Examples of carer's leave situations include staying home to care for a sick child who cannot attend school, accompanying an elderly parent to a medical appointment, or responding to an emergency involving a family member. It is important to note that both types of leave draw from the same pool of 10 days — they are not separate entitlements. You could use all 10 days as sick leave, all 10 as carer's leave, or any combination. Some enterprise agreements provide additional personal leave above the NES minimum or provide separate pools for sick leave and carer's leave.
Evidence Requirements — When Do You Need a Medical Certificate?
Under the Fair Work Act, your employer can request evidence that supports your reason for taking personal/carer's leave. The most common form of evidence is a medical certificate from a registered health practitioner (doctor, dentist, physiotherapist, psychologist, etc.), but a statutory declaration is also acceptable as an alternative. The Act does not specify that evidence is required for a particular number of days — it simply says the employer 'may require' evidence. However, most employers and awards set specific rules. Common practice is that no certificate is required for single-day absences (or the first 1-2 days), but a certificate is required for absences of 2 or more consecutive days. Your award, enterprise agreement, or employment contract may specify different rules — some require evidence from day one, while others are more lenient. Check your specific instrument. If you provide a valid medical certificate, your employer cannot refuse to accept it or demand to know your specific diagnosis — the certificate only needs to state that you were unfit for work, for how long, and be signed by a registered practitioner. However, if your employer has genuine concerns about your fitness for work (for example, after a prolonged absence), they may require you to attend an independent medical examination (IME) at the employer's expense. You are generally required to attend an IME if reasonably requested, though you can request a different examiner if you have concerns about the one selected.
Can Your Employer Refuse Paid Sick Leave?
Your employer cannot refuse to pay your personal/carer's leave if you meet the requirements: you are a permanent employee, you have accrued leave available, you were genuinely unfit for work (or caring for a family member), and you have provided evidence if requested. If your employer refuses to pay, they are breaching the National Employment Standards, which is a serious contravention of the Fair Work Act. However, there are some situations where an employer may legitimately question a leave claim. If you have a pattern of taking single sick days on Mondays or Fridays (sometimes called 'pattern absences'), the employer may request evidence from day one and may investigate whether the absences are genuine. If you take personal leave while on annual leave (for example, you become sick during your holiday), you can request to have those days re-credited as personal leave and deducted from your personal leave balance instead — but you must provide a medical certificate. If you have exhausted your paid personal leave balance, you are not entitled to additional paid leave (unless your award or agreement provides otherwise), but you can request unpaid leave or use annual leave. Some employers offer additional paid leave or access to a 'sick leave bank' as part of their enterprise agreement or workplace policy. If your employer refuses a legitimate sick leave claim, lodge a complaint with the Fair Work Ombudsman immediately — time limits may apply to recovery of unpaid entitlements.
Personal Leave and Termination — What Happens to Your Balance?
Unlike annual leave, accumulated personal/carer's leave is NOT paid out when your employment ends. This is one of the key differences between the two types of leave. When you resign, are made redundant, or are terminated, your unused personal leave balance simply expires. This is the case regardless of how large the balance is — even if you have accumulated 150 days of unused sick leave over 15 years, you receive no payment for it upon termination. There are two exceptions to this general rule. First, some enterprise agreements or employment contracts include a provision for partial payout of unused personal leave on termination — this is relatively uncommon but does exist in some industries, particularly the public sector. Second, if you take personal leave during your notice period and provide a valid medical certificate, you are entitled to be paid for that leave as normal. Your employer cannot require you to use up your personal leave during the notice period, and you cannot choose to take excessive personal leave during notice to avoid working it out. Some financial planners advise employees approaching retirement to use accumulated personal leave strategically for medical procedures, health checks, and dental work before their employment ends, rather than losing the entitlement entirely. While this must be done legitimately (you must have a genuine medical need), it is a practical way to extract value from a balance that would otherwise be forfeited. For employers, large accumulated personal leave balances represent an unfunded liability that does not appear on the balance sheet — unlike annual leave provisions which must be accounted for.
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General information and estimates only — not legal, financial, or tax advice. Always verify with the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) or a qualified professional.
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