In Australia, you generally can't be fired for being sick if you're on paid leave and provide a medical certificate, especially for absences under 3 months; however, you aren't protected if you exceed this, run out of paid leave, or are a casual worker. Employers must make reasonable adjustments for disabilities, but can dismiss you if you can't do your job's inherent duties after long-term illness, though they must follow fair process.
For example, they might have to consider whether the job itself is making you sick and needs to be changed. You can still be dismissed if you are off sick. Your employer would normally be expected to allow a reasonable amount of time for you to recover from your illness.
Abuse of sick leave refers to employees who, over a period of time, have “gamed” the employer's attendance policy. The exploitation of sick leave policy may range from employees not calling in or not showing up for their shifts, exhausting their available leave every month, and requesting extra time off when well.
Nope. Employer has no right to approve or deny sick leave. The employee only need to inform them.
Full-time employees are entitled to 10 sick days per year. The leave is pro-rata for part-time employees. Unused sick and carer's leave is carried over to the next year.
An employee is no longer protected from being dismissed because of their absence (even if they provide evidence) if: their absence is more than 3 consecutive months or more than 3 months in total over the last 12 months, and. they've used all of their paid sick leave.
You must provide your employer with a doctor's “fit note” (previously called a sick note) if you are off sick for more than 7 days in a row (including non-working days such as weekends). If you do need a fit note, it will say whether you are “not fit for work” or “may be fit for work”.
An employer cannot fire someone for an illegal reason, such as discrimination, retaliation, or exercising a protected right. For example, you can be fired while on sick leave—but you cannot be fired because you took legally protected sick leave or because of your illness or disability.
However, sick leave termination is only legal under the following circumstances: There is a lawful reason for the employee's termination. The employee doesn't have any protection against termination.
Sick day rules generally provide paid leave for illness or family care, with full-time staff often getting 10 days/year (pro-rata for part-time) that carry over, but casuals usually get unpaid leave; you must notify your employer ASAP and provide evidence like a doctor's note (fit note) for longer absences, with specifics varying by award, agreement, or contract.
A disciplinary for sickness is not straightforward, but it may be necessary at times. Ideally, you want to spot patterns and do something about an employee's recurring sickness before it warrants anything close to a disciplinary.
Employees are entitled to sick leave in accordance with the relevant industrial awards and the NSW Health Policy Directive - PD2024_046 Leave Matters for the NSW Health Service. Paid sick leave is cumulative and there is no limit to the total accumulation.
One day in average every 6 weeks is not necessarily a lot. Depending on how sick, if you can provide a medical certificate, then you should be good. Otherwise, every now and then because of the flu it's also acceptable. The workplace will let the worker know if a Medical paper is needed.
If you feel an employee is calling in sick too often, you can absolutely discipline them in line with your company policy on absenteeism—for example, by having human resources give them a written warning, which you keep in their personnel file, or making them ineligible for a performance bonus.
The five generally accepted fair reasons for dismissal are Conduct, Capability/Performance, Redundancy, Statutory Illegality (breach of statutory duty), and Some Other Substantial Reason (SOSR), all requiring a fair process including investigation, warnings (usually), and opportunity for the employee to respond. These cover an employee's behavior (misconduct), ability to do the job (performance/health), the job no longer existing (redundancy), legal restrictions (losing a license), or other significant business reasons like irreparable personality clashes.
Five key signs of work-related stress include physical symptoms (headaches, fatigue, sleep issues), emotional changes (irritability, anxiety, mood swings), cognitive difficulties (trouble focusing, poor decision-making), behavioral shifts (withdrawal, increased substance use), and performance decline (lower output, errors, procrastination). These signs often manifest as a persistent feeling of being overwhelmed, leading to physical tension, mental fog, and strained relationships at work and home.
Australian law protects employees from being dismissed because they are temporarily absent due to illness or injury. Whether an absence is “temporary” can depend on length and evidence. Separate to this, unfair dismissal laws require a valid reason related to capacity or conduct and a procedurally fair process.
Employees on long-term sick leave
Long-term absence from work for health reasons is not a form of misconduct. A long-term health condition and absence affecting the employee's ability to work can be a fair reason to dismiss them. This should be done after following fair capability procedures.
Insubordination and related issues such as dishonesty or breaking company rules. Attendance issues, such as frequent absences or chronic tardiness. Theft or other criminal behavior including revealing trade secrets. Sexual harassment and other discriminatory behavior in the workplace.
Fundamentally, if an employee lies or even exaggerates an illness or injury and relies on this in order to 'pull a sickie', this is potentially grounds for dismissal. This is on the basis that it amounts to a breach of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence within the employment relationship.
Over and over again. Without giving notice that they'll be out. SHRM defines excessive absenteeism as “two or more occurrences of unexcused absence in a 30-day period.”2 That's a valuable data point to use as a gauge for what counts as excessive absenteeism in the workplace.
The 'General Protections' within the Fair Work Act 2009 make it unlawful to dismiss an employee because of the employee's use of leave. Specifically, it is unlawful to dismiss an employee because he or she is 'temporarily absent due to illness or injury'.
Generally, an employer cannot fire you just for calling in sick. There are legal protections and company policies that usually protect employees from being fired for legitimate illness-related absences.
There is no specific frequency to how often an employer can contact you when you're off sick. However, it should be kept to a 'reasonable' level. If an employee is off sick for a short amount of time, depending on their reason for absence, contacting them once a day for an update may be deemed 'reasonable'.
There's no strict legal definition of excessive sick leave, it's all about patterns and impact. However, it typically refers to either frequent short-term absence or a long-term absence with no clear return date. For example: An employee is off sick repeatedly often on similar days.