Sick leave

• Minimum legal entitlement is five days
• Employees may anticipate up to five days’ sick leave
• Employees may apply to anticipate over five days’ sick leave
• Recovering anticipated sick leave when new entitlement is due
• Recovering anticipated sick leave when employee leaves

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Minimum legal entitlement is five days

Employees are entitled to a minimum of five days’ sick leave in each twelve-month period under the Holidays Act 2003.

Record sick leave

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Employees may anticipate up to five days’ sick leave

If an employee has used up their sick leave they can anticipate up to five days in any following twelve-month period under the Holidays Act 2003.

Record anticipated sick leave

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Employees may apply to anticipate over five days’ sick leave

Employees may apply to anticipate further sick leave over and above the five days they have already anticipated in a twelve-month period. The maximum number of days they can anticipate is twenty days over five years.

Apply to your Board for non-teaching staff who want to anticipate sick leave.

Contact the Ministry of Education for teaching staff who want to anticipate sick leave:

1. Get a certified copy of a current medical certificate showing the date the teacher is expected to recover
2. Get written confirmation that the teacher agrees to repay the amount of anticipated sick leave should they leave the service before their next sick leave entitlement is due.
3. Attach the medical certificate and repayment confirmation to your letter.
4. Send these to the Ministry of Education.

Recovering anticipated sick leave when new entitlement is due

Your pay centre will deduct anticipated sick leave taken, from a future entitlement when it falls due.

Recovering anticipated sick leave when employee leaves

If your employee leaves the teaching service and they have anticipated sick leave of:

• up to and including the five days, your pay centre will not recover the leave
• more than five days, payroll will only recover the leave over and above the five days. For example, payroll will recover one day’s leave from an employee’s pay if they have anticipated six days’ sick leave.