Sick leave entitlement - accumulate or allocate after 6 months?

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timmmay

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#233845 6-May-2018 07:04

I've been working for my current employer, a large company, for seven months. My sick leave balance is showing zero, even though I haven't taken any sick leave. It's certainly an oversight, process error, or error with the web leave system, and as soon as I point it out it will no doubt be fixed. I just want a little bit of information first.

My contract and the legislation says you get 5 days sick leave after 6 months employment. Do you get that full 5 days entitlement immediately as soon as that 6 month period is up, or does it accumyulate over the year? The government employment page isn't clear. I suspect you get the full entitlement immediately.

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#2008582 6-May-2018 08:18

Yup you get all 5 days at the 6 month mark.

timmmay

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#2008586 6-May-2018 08:28

Is there any good reference that says that, that anyone knows of? Legislation is tedious to read.

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#2008604 6-May-2018 09:26

timmmay: Is there any good reference that says that, that anyone knows of? Legislation is tedious to read.

search it then

Jase2985

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#2008606 6-May-2018 09:30

63 Entitlement to sick leave and bereavement leave

(1) An employee is entitled to sick leave and bereavement leave in accordance with this subpart—
(a) after the employee has completed 6 months’ current continuous employment with the employer; or

65 Sick leave

(1) An employee may take sick leave if—
(a)the employee is sick or injured; or
(b) the employee’s spouse or partner is sick or injured; or
(c)a person who depends on the employee for care is sick or injured.

(2)An employee is entitled to 5 days’ sick leave for each of the 12-month periods specified in section 63(2).

timmmay

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#2008609 6-May-2018 09:36

Thanks. That part of legislation isn't really clear on immediate allocation vs allocation. I think it means after 6 months work your full entitlement is immediately available.

I guess the allocation is done every year at the 6 month anniversary of the start date.

andrewNZ

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#2008611 6-May-2018 09:47

Annual leave accrues from the day you are employed.

Sick leave is allocated in full on the rollover date. The rollover dates are 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, etc years.

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Goosey

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#2008612 6-May-2018 09:47

I would think if you genuinely needed sick leave before the 6 months it would be treated as taken in advance and deducuted after the 6 month mark.

Sick leave accrues but doesnt compund accrue i.e. if you leave you dont get this paid out and if after two years of not taking sick leave, this doesnt mean you get 10 days to use (its whatever the number of days per year you are allowed as per your contract).

tripp

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#2008619 6-May-2018 10:19

Depends on the contract

Mine is 10 days each year from the start date of employment

Friends is 5 days a year but can only start to use it after 6 months employment in the first year. His rolls over again after 12 months from his start date.

sidefx

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#2008628 6-May-2018 10:55

HR departments are usually pretty good at knowing this sort of thing and rarely intentionally try to short change you - perhaps ask them and then if you don't like the answer start researching?

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#2008652 6-May-2018 11:57

sidefx:
HR departments are usually pretty good at knowing this sort of thing and rarely intentionally try to short change you - perhaps ask them and then if you don't like the answer start researching?

Agree. On the other hand weird stuff can happen with strange beliefs of overseas based HR and/or automated systems where no specialist HR exists.

sidefx

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#2008656 6-May-2018 12:14

True, though I guess my point is the OP is obviously hoping to "get the full entitlement immediately" and there's no harm is just asking HR and they might immediately say "yup you should get the full entitlement" in which case you've saved yourself a bunch of research and debate on what the legislation actually means ;-)

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timmmay

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#2008657 6-May-2018 12:15

Goosey:

I would think if you genuinely needed sick leave before the 6 months it would be treated as taken in advance and deducuted after the 6 month mark.

Sick leave accrues but doesnt compund accrue i.e. if you leave you dont get this paid out and if after two years of not taking sick leave, this doesnt mean you get 10 days to use (its whatever the number of days per year you are allowed as per your contract).

My employer sticks strictly to the laws, and gives the statutory minimum sick leave. Doesn't much matter when you have kids if you get the leave when you first start, 5 days is a drop in the bucket.

Sick leave does accrue, according to the website I linked to above, up to 20 days. I used to get 10 days a year with my last employer and didn't take much, I ended up with 25 days sick leave, which was useful when my son was young.

timmmay

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#2008659 6-May-2018 12:25

sidefx:

True, though I guess my point is the OP is obviously hoping to "get the full entitlement immediately" and there's no harm is just asking HR and they might immediately say "yup you should get the full entitlement" in which case you've saved yourself a bunch of research and debate on what the legislation actually means ;-)

I'm mostly curious. So long as I get the sick leave I'll use it whether it turns up immediately or later. The company has thousands of employees so they will be doing things properly. It could even be something that's updated after each pay run, and I've been there just over six months - it might turn up next month.

I've emailed my manager to ask, since I don't know how to contact HR.

Dairyxox

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#2008667 6-May-2018 12:36

Geez I wonder what payroll system they use? Its a bit of a worry because normally this sort of stuff just happens with no manual intervention.

Maybe it was just a tickbox missing on your employee setup form.

frankv

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#2008712 6-May-2018 13:28

If you even need to worry about this, I suggest you look for a new job. If your employer is going to be bloody-minded about details like this, your job is going to be a continual PITA.

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