Sick Leave
Sick leave becomes an entitlement after six months continuous service and the number of days varies with each employment agreement.
The minimum entitlement is 5 days currently but employees can negotiate more if this is acceptable to the employer. The minimum number of sick days can vary with a change in law.
Sick leave comes under the Holidays Act and recent changes to the Act require that employment agreements are worded carefully to meet the requirements of the Act.
There is now a provision for employees to request annual holidays to be taken if they run out of sick leave. This is to ensure a continuity of income in those cases where the entitlement to Sick Leave is exhausted but more are required.
Unused Sick Leave can now accumulate.
Tip
Given that employers lose production and the wages paid when employees are sick - here’s a suggestion. We are all aware that some employees ‘throw sickies’ and the losses mount up. If employers introduce a scheme that will pay an extra week’s wages at Christmas to employees that have not taken any sick days, this provides an incentive for employees not to ‘throw sickies’ on the Big Day Out. Please consider this because employers are going to pay the wages anyway.
There are many - and significantly important - rules that are covered in our eBook 'Holidays 2008'.
For more information on the Holidays 2008 publication click here >>
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