Sick leave basics
Entitlement to sick leave in New Zealand is provided in days, not weeks or hours.
All employees (including part-time and casual employees, if they met the test described below) are entitled to 10 days' sick leave per year if they have six months’ current continuous employment with the same employer.
That means an employee receives their entitlement 6 months after starting work. The first entitlement is after 6 months, but it is every 12 months thereafter. It does not accrue or build up over time, it is just a single entitlement received on the entitlement date.
That looks like:
Jenny starts work on the 1st January.
She receives her 10 day sick leave entitlement on the 1st July, after 6 months.
She receives her next 10 day sick leave entitlement on the 1st July each year, every 12 months.
💡 Sick leave is not ‘pro-rated’. Everyone is entitled to 10 days, even employees who only work 1 day per week.
What the Holidays Act says
An employee may take sick leave if
the employee is sick or injured; or
the employee’s spouse or partner is sick or injured; or
a person who depends on the employee for care is sick or injured.
An employee is entitled to 10 days’ sick leave for each of the 12-month periods specified in section 63(2).
This means that an employee is entitled to take sick leave if they have an available entitlement, and if they are sick or injured, or their spouse/partner or a dependent is sick or injured.
💡 Sick leave is heavily dependent on ‘incapacity to work’. If someone is incapable of work due to sickness or injury and needs to attend a medical appointment, including a planned one, sick leave can still cover this.
Payment for sick leave
Payment for sick leave is due at the Relevant Daily Pay (what would normally be due for payment on that day), or if that cannot be determined, the Average Daily Pay.
Taking a sick day
Paid sick leave is only an entitlement if the sick day is a day the employee would normally have worked, had they not been sick. If the employee is sick on a day they were not rostered to work, then sick leave is not due for that day.
Maximum accrual
By default in legislation, sick leave is capped at a maximum accrual of 20 days.
Employers can choose to let employees build up more than this, but 20 days maximum is the default position. That means if an employee had 17 days and was due to receive their next entitlement, they would only receive another 3 days to bring them to the maximum balance of 20 days.
Using sick leave when on holiday
If someone is on a period of annual leave but falls sick, they are able to change their leave to sick instead. Sick leave takes priority over booked annual leave.
Taking a part day
The entitlement to sick leave is covered in the Act in terms of days. Dividing the day into hours, or part days, is not (currently) legislated. If an employee needs to take part of a day as sick leave, by default this would be treated as a whole day of sick leave. However, because you can always choose to give employees something that is better than their entitlement by law, employers can choose to recognise part days of sick leave (as part days or hours).
Most employers in practice would choose to recognise part days of sick leave or break it down into hours in some way.
Not paid out upon termination
Payment of entitled sick leave is due when an employee is sick or injured, unable to work in relation to sickness or injury. This means sick leave is not paid upon termination of employment.
Proof of incapacity
An employer can ask an employee for proof of sickness or injury. Usually proof is a medical certificate from a doctor saying that the employee is sick or injured (or their spouse, partner or dependent) and isn't able to work. An employer can’t tell an employee which doctor or practice they have to go to.
If an employee is sick or injured, or cannot attend work because their spouse, partner or dependent is sick or injured, for three or more days in a row - even if these three days are not all days the employee would have otherwise worked on - and the employer asks for proof, then the employee needs to meet the cost.
If an employee is sick or injured, or cannot attend work because their spouse, partner or dependent is sick or injured, for less than three days an employer can ask for proof of sickness or injury, but they must ask as soon as possible and pay the employee back for the cost of getting the proof, for example a visit to the doctor.
Receiving sick leave while on parental leave
Parental leave is continuous employment for the purposes of leave entitlement, so employees will still be entitled to receive their normal sick leave entitlement while they’re away from work on parental leave. They wouldn't usually be able to use it while they’re on parental leave though (apart from perhaps for a keeping in touch day that was organised) as they haven’t been at work and expected to be at work, so there’s no work to be unavailable from.
If employment is not continuous
In some cases, employees don’t work continuously for an employer. This can include seasonal workers or casual employees. Because they would otherwise be disadvantaged and effectively never entitled to sick leave if they didn’t work for 6 months continuously, entitlement to sick leave can also be determined as:
they have worked for the employer for six months for:
an average of 10 hours per week, and
at least one hour in every week or 40 hours in every month.
For each 12-month period after meeting the above criteria, each employee gets at least 10 days’ sick leave. If in any year the employee doesn’t meet the criteria, then they don’t get any new sick leave entitlement. But they can use their sick leave balance which may have carried over from the previous year. An employee may re-qualify for sick leave as soon as they meet the criteria.