Certified Sick Leave – Employee Entitlements

Annual Leave

Employees can build up annual leave entitlement while they are off sick, as long as they have a medical certificate. If they are on long-term sick leave and cannot take annual leave due to illness, they can carry it over for up to 15 months after the end of the year it was earned.
Example: Annual leave for 2020 (assuming the annual leave year is the calendar year) can be carried over until 31st March 2022.
Strictly speaking, the employee shouldn’t be on annual leave in the middle of sick leave so HR advice may be needed if an annual leave payment is requested in such circumstances.

Public Holidays

Employees are entitled to public holidays for the first 26 weeks of certified illness (52 weeks for workplace accidents).