Personal leave (also known as ‘sick leave’) does not expire at the end of the year if it is not used.
Personal leave begins accumulating from the employee’s first day of work and is based on their ordinary hours of work in accordance with the National Employment Standards. Full-time employees accrue 10 days of paid personal leave (inclusive of carer’s leave) per year and part-time employees accrue the pro-rata equivalent. Your employment contract may allow for more personal leave, but it cannot allow for less personal leave.
The recent High Court decision in Mondelez Australia Pty Ltd v AMWU & Ors [2020] HCA 29 clarified that the entitlement to 10 days of personal leave:
- is accrued based on the employee’s ordinary hours of work, not working days; and
- is calculated as 1/26 of an employee’s ordinary hours of work per year.
On this basis, full-time employees working 38 ordinary hours per week would accrue 76 hours of personal leave each year. Part-time employees working, for example, 25 hours per week would accrue 50 hours of personal leave each year.
Your personal leave continues to accrue for the period of your employment and is not a ‘use it or lose it’ yearly entitlement like paid family violence leave. The exception to this is when the employment relationship ends unless your employment contract includes payment of personal leave on termination of employment.
If you require advice in relation to personal leave entitlements, please get in touch with us on (03) 5722 4681.
MORGAN COUZENS LEGAL
If you would like to learn more about leave entitlements, please read the below blogs:
I need to care for a family member, can I take personal leave?
