Under the Employee benefits and entitlements policy, the department is committed to providing attractive benefits and entitlements for all employees by providing comprehensive paid and unpaid leave entitlements according to the current legislation, awards and determinations.

Employees:

• apply for leave through SAP
• accurately record hours worked in timesheets
• send timesheets to managers for approval
• provide reasonable notice of a request for leave
• ensure the appropriate leave type is requested for leave purpose
• provide relevant evidence for the cause of absence, where necessary
• communicate any changes to an original leave request to their manager
• notify, or arrange for another person to notify their manager, to provide a reason for any unexpected absences as soon as possible.

Managers (including principals):

• action leave requests through SAP
• ensure employees record their leave in a timely manner (including full and part day leave) and that information is reconciled with sign-on registers, if available
• review and approve employee timesheets
• ensure equitable access to leave, taking into account employee needs and operational requirements
• maintain employee confidentiality
• request relevant evidence of absence, where required under an award
• provide employees with reasonable justification for declining a leave request
• monitor employee attendance and absences
• address any possible breaches of the Code of conduct by an employee as soon as they become aware of it
• ensure correct use of process and records management.

Full-time employees:

• are eligible for all paid leave provisions
• can be absent from work for unpaid parental, sick, bereavement or personal carers leave.

Part-time employees:

• are eligible for paid leave provisions on a pro-rata basis, calculated according to the number of hours worked per week
• can be absent from work for unpaid parental, sick, bereavement or personal carers leave.

Casual employees:

• are not eligible for paid leave, except for long service leave
• are paid a loading in recognition of the casual nature of the employment and to compensate for the absence of most types of paid leave
• can be absent from work for unpaid parental, sick, bereavement or personal carers leave
• casual teachers who become pregnant and have been employed full-time for at least 40 continuous weeks before the anticipated date of birth of the child, may qualify for maternity leave payments. Refer to Chapter 9, Section 9.7.2 Maternity leave – payment in lieu (PDF 100 KB) of the Teachers Handbook for more information.

Short-term temporary SASS employees:

• are not eligible for paid leave, except for long service leave
• are paid a loading in recognition of the temporary nature of the employment and to compensate for the absence of most types of paid leave
• can be absent from work for unpaid parental, sick, bereavement or personal carers leave.

Extended leave is a form of paid leave available to long-serving permanent and temporary employees.

Eligible employees can access their extended leave after 7 years of full-time service or the pro-rata part-time equivalent. The accrued extended leave after 7 years of full-time service is 30.8 days.

Extended leave can be taken on half, full or double pay (or a combination). Taking extended leave at half pay can reduce the accrual of other leave and benefits, including vacation pay and leave loading.

Extended leave applications must be made in advance and after discussion with management to agree on a mutually convenient time.

Eligible employees can work extra hours and then use those hours as paid leave. The days off work are known as ‘flex days’ and they can be taken as either half or full days.

Managers must approve flex leave. They must also consider operational requirements when making this decision.

Refer to Flexible working hours agreement (staff only) for more information.

Long service leave is only available to casual and short-term temporary employees after at least 10 years of continuous service. Usually, it is a monetary payment when employment has ceased but it may also be taken as leave in certain circumstances.

Employees must discuss their proposed leave with management before applying. This ensures both parties have agreed on a mutually convenient time.

Employees are granted paid family and community service (FACS) leave to undertake family responsibilities and community service activities.

These can include:

• unplanned and emergency family responsibilities, such as the illness or death of a close family or kinship member
• emergency childcare cancellations or school matters
• extreme weather events threatening property or preventing attendance at work
• emergency accommodation matters
• cultural obligations (including significant dates and events, NAIDOC week, sorry business, coming-of-age or welcoming celebrations).

FACS leave may also be granted to employees to:

• attend court to answer a charge for a criminal offence
• compete at a major amateur sporting event (to represent Australia or a state/territory)
• attend local government meetings if they are a member.

Exhaustion of FACS leave

If an employee needs to care for a family member and they have exhausted their FACS leave, they can access their sick leave entitlement.

Employees can also be granted up to 2 days of additional FACS leave in the event of a family member's death or a natural emergency.

If their additional FACS leave has been exhausted, employees can apply for paid leave entitlements (such as extended or recreation leave) where available or leave without pay.

Non-emergency responsibilities should be addressed outside of normal working hours, or through approved use of flexible working arrangements and other accrued leave (such as recreation or extended leave).

Leave without pay can be granted at the discretion of management to allow permanent, temporary and long-term temporary employees to take an unpaid absence from work. It can be granted on a full-time (LWOP) or a part-time (PTLWOP) basis. No other paid leave can be granted during a period of leave without pay.

Both LWOP and PTLWOP can reduce leave and benefits accrual, including:

• vacation pay
• leave loading
• incremental progression
• extended and other leave accruals.

LWOP can also affect members of defined benefit superannuation schemes.

All employees should be aware of the conditions under which leave without pay is granted and ensure any employment undertaken while on leave is in accordance with the Private and secondary employment procedure.

Employees are not required to exhaust their accrued paid leave before proceeding on leave without pay. If they choose to combine all or part of their accrued paid leave with leave without pay, the paid leave will be taken first.

Employees are paid for any proclaimed public holidays that occur during any period of leave without pay (for up to 10 working days).

Employees of any religious faith, or ethnic or cultural background can access recreation and/or extended leave, flex leave or leave without pay to observe essential religious or cultural obligations.

They can be absent from work for these essential obligations, provided they:

• give adequate notice to their manager
• obtain prior approval from their manager
• arrange for the time off to be made up in a manner approved by their manager, if necessary.

Purchased leave is additional leave that employees can purchase as needed over a 12-month period.

It is facilitated through a voluntary Purchased Leave Agreement, where an employee’s fortnightly pay is reduced to cover the cost of the additional leave.

It counts as service for all purposes, including superannuation and shift loadings and must be taken in minimum blocks of 5 days (or pro-rata for part-time employees). Requests for single days of purchased leave are not permitted.

Purchased leave cannot be accrued and will be refunded if it is not taken in the 12-month period.

The approval of requests for purchased leave is subject to operational staffing requirements, personal needs and work demands.

Employees may be granted up to 20 days of purchased leave over the 12-month agreement period.

Other leave taken during the 12-month agreement period is paid at the rate of pay an employee receives when their ordinary salary rate has been reduced to cover the cost of the purchased leave.

Recreation leave is provided to permanent and temporary employees to allow time for rest and recreation.

Managers must approve this leave and they must consider operational staffing requirements. Recreation leave will not be granted for less than ¼ day.

Employees must take at least 2 consecutive weeks of recreation leave every 12 months unless approved by the department.

If an employee accumulates 30 days of recreation leave, their manager may direct them to take at least 2 weeks of recreation leave within 3 months of the direction.

Employees are entitled to be paid the monetary value of unused recreation leave when they cease employment.

Employees are paid a loading in addition to their normal salary when taking annual leave. This amount is 17.5% of the monetary value of up to 4 weeks of recreation leave accrued in a year.

Leave loading is paid once a year, starting in the second year of employment.

Leave-loading payments are based on accrued leave during the previous year, so it cannot be paid in the first year of employment. Leave loading is paid on the first occasion that an employee takes at least 2 weeks of leave in the year (this can be comprised of a mix of different leave types).

If at least 2 weeks of leave are not taken in a leave year, the annual leave loading entitlement for the previous leave year is paid to the employee on 30 November of the current year.

The department will pay an employee’s annual leave loading when they leave the department if they were not paid the annual leave loading for the previous year. However, the department may not pay annual leave loading if an employee’s employment was terminated for serious and intentional misconduct.

Sick leave is granted to allow employees time to rehabilitate and recover from:

• a physical illness or injury
• a psychological illness or injury
• medical treatment.

Employees must inform their manager as soon as possible when they cannot attend work because of illness.

Managers may also direct employees to take sick leave if satisfied that they are unable to carry out duties without distress, risk further impairment to their health, or pose a risk to the health, wellbeing and safety of others.

If an employee is concerned about disclosing the nature of their illness to their manager, they should contact HR directly to confidently discuss the matter.

Evidence of illness requirements

A valid medical certificate must be submitted to support any sick leave application for more than:

• 2 days (non-teaching staff)
• 3 days (teaching staff).

If more than 5 days of sick leave is taken in a calendar year (non-teaching staff) or more than 5 occasions of sick leave in a 12 month period (teaching staff), you may be asked to provide a medical certificate for every sick leave absence for the next 3, 6 or 12 months regardless of the duration of the absence.

A registered health services practitioner (for example, a pharmacist or psychologist) may provide evidence of an illness lasting up to one week.

When the absence exceeds one week, applications must be supported by evidence of illness from a registered medical practitioner (for example, a general practitioner).

Backdated medical certificates are not usually accepted. However, if an employee provides evidence of illness that only covers the latter part of the absence, they can be granted sick leave for the whole period if their manager is satisfied that the reason for the absence is genuine.

Refer to Awards and determinations or the employee handbook for further examples of who can provide a medical certificate.

Sick leave while on other leave

When an employee on recreation leave provides satisfactory evidence of an illness that occurred during the leave, their manager can grant them sick leave for this period.

In the case of extended leave, sick leave is only granted for illnesses longer than 5 days, as supported by the evidence of the illness.

Sick leave pending a workers compensation determination

Sick leave can be used to cover an absence from the workplace while an employee is awaiting a determination on their worker’s compensation claim.

When applying for this leave, employees must submit a copy of their medical certificate to their manager and email it to WCMC@det.nsw.edu.au.

After approval, the employee will be granted the use of their accumulated sick leave on full pay, pending the determination of their claim.

Employees who have exhausted their paid sick leave can access sick leave without pay, accrued recreation leave, or extended leave instead.

If the department accepts liability for a compensation claim, the sick leave taken by an employee while awaiting the outcome will be restored to them in credit.

Claims other than workers compensation

Sick leave on full pay may be approved when an employee is injured in circumstances that lead to a claim for damages or compensation, other than workers compensation.

Approval is subject to the following conditions:

• the employee has provided acceptable evidence of illness
• any claim made will include the value of any paid sick leave
• when an employee is deemed liable and has received damages or compensation for the value of any paid sick leave, they will repay the monetary value of that leave back to the department
• when an employee has repaid the monetary value of sick leave, they will be credited with an equivalent amount of sick leave (calculated at their ordinary pay rate).

Special sick leave

Employees can be granted an additional 22 days of sick leave entitlement for every 10 years of their permanent or temporary service.

To be eligible for this entitlement, employees must have:

• completed at least 10 years of permanent or temporary service
• been (or will be) absent for a continuous period of at least 3 months (inclusive of student vacation periods for school-based employees)
• exhausted (or will exhaust) all their paid sick leave entitlements.

Employees must submit their special sick leave requests via SAP to determine eligibility.

Sick leave for personal carer’s reasons

When FACS leave has been exhausted, a permanent or long-term temporary employee can access paid sick leave to provide care and support to a family member who is ill or experiencing domestic and family violence.

This leave is:

• limited to the sick leave accumulated over the previous 3 years, less any sick leave already taken
• subject to the employee being responsible for the care and support of the person in need.

Employees can take special leave on full pay to undertake certain personal, community, cultural and other activities.

Education support staff and School administrative and support staff (SASS) – refer to the relevant Awards and determinations for examples of events and activities that qualify for special leave.

Teachers – more information on special leave types, conditions and durations is available in Chapter 4, Section 4.14 Special leave (PDF 1 MB) of the Teachers Handbook.

The department offers up to 20 days of paid domestic and family violence (DFV) leave per calendar year.

Accessing this leave helps employees to:

• seek safe accommodation or establish safety
• attend medical, legal, police or counselling appointments relating to the experience
• attend court and other legal proceedings related to the experience
• organise alternative care or education arrangements for children
• organise activities associated with ensuring safety, facilitating recovery or for other purposes that are impractical to do outside of normal work hours.

This leave is non-cumulative and can be taken in part, single or consecutive days. It can be accessed without exhausting other leave entitlements, such as FACS leave. Employees can also access their FACS leave or sick leave to care for a family member experiencing DFV.

DFV leave does not need to be approved by a manager before it can be accessed. However, employees should advise their manager of the need to take it as soon as possible.

The department provides study leave in the following situations:

• unpaid leave (except where financial assistance has been approved) for employees who are studying in a full-time course
• paid leave for employees who are studying in a part-time course relevant to the department or the public service. It may be used for attending lectures, tutorials or private study but is not granted for repeated subjects.

If an employee does not take study time at the nominated date, it is forfeited. However, if an employee cannot take it due to an emergency at work, their study time can be granted on another day during the same week.

The department grants paid leave to undertake examinations for approved courses of study as special leave. It is limited to a maximum of 5 days per year.

Paid military leave is granted each financial year as an annual entitlement to employees who are Australian Defence Force reservists for certain types of service. This includes:

• initial recruit training
• compulsory annual training
• attendance at schools, classes or courses of instruction
• compulsory parades
• call out.

Unpaid military leave is granted for reserve service that is not covered by the annual paid military leave entitlement. Employees may also elect to use other forms of accrued leave to undertake reserve service.

Employees should write to their manager about their anticipated military leave commitments every 12 months. After the approved military leave period, they must also provide their manager with evidence of their attendance at the reserve service.

Employees with approved military service leave must also submit a copy of the TRI-Service Notice of ADF Reserve Service (PDF 965 KB) with their leave application.

Refer to the Military leave guidelines (staff only) for more information.

All employees not involved in delivering essential services are encouraged to take leave over the Christmas/New Year period.

Refer to Christmas closedown (staff only) for more information.

The department provides paid and unpaid leave for fertility treatment, births, adoptions, altruistic surrogacies, out-of-home-care placements, miscarriages and pre-term births.

To be eligible for any paid or unpaid parental leave, employees must have been employed by the department at the date of birth, adoption, altruistic surrogacy or permanent out-of-home-care placement.

Permanent and temporary employees are eligible for paid parental leave, provided they have completed 40 weeks of continuous service with the department before their child's expected date of birth, adoption, or placement.

In addition, permanent and temporary employees (including those who are not eligible for paid parental leave) may be entitled to unpaid parental leave.

Casual employees with at least 12 months of continuous service with the department may also be entitled to unpaid parental leave.

Refer to Parental leave (staff only) for more information about different parental scenarios.

• Awards and determinations
• Approvals, rejections and delegations (staff only)
• Managing staff absences (staff only)
• Extended and long service leave (staff only)
• Sick leave management (staff only)
• Flexible working hours agreement (staff only)
• Managing recreation leave (staff only)
• Parental leave (staff only)
• Vacation pay (staff only)
• Leave framework for responding to emergencies (staff only)
• Military leave guidelines (staff only)
• Education support staff Leave entitlements and responsibilities (staff only)
• Department of Defence – Tri-Service Notice ADF Reserve Service (PDF 957 KB)

Quick reference guides:

• Create a leave request – QRG (staff only)
• Approve or reject a leave request – QRG (staff only)
• View your leave calendar, entitlements and history – QRG (staff only)

• Government Sector Employment Act 2013
• Teaching Service Act 1980
• Industrial Relations Act 1996
• Long Service Leave Act 1955
• Transferred Officers Extended Leave Act 1961
• Defence Reserve Service (Protection) Act 2001

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