Sick leave is where a lot of shift-based businesses run into the same blind spot: they know staff get paid sick days, but they don't realise hospitalisation leave is a separate, much larger entitlement — and that the two interact in a specific way the Employment Act 1955 spells out under Section 60F.
Ordinary paid sick leave, by tenure
| Years of service | Sick leave days per year (no hospitalisation) |
|---|---|
| Under 2 years | 14 days |
| 2 to under 5 years | 18 days |
| 5 years or more | 22 days |
Part-timers again have their own scale — 10/13/15 days on the same tenure bands. See the Part-Time Staff Scheduling Rules guide for the full comparison.
The separate 60-day hospitalisation allowance
This is the part most people miss entirely: on top of the ordinary sick leave above, every employee is entitled to up to 60 days per year of paid hospitalisation leave if the medical condition actually requires hospital confinement — and this is a combined cap inclusive of the ordinary sick days used that year, not an additional 60 days stacked on top of them.
The certification requirement that makes it enforceable
None of this is payable on the employee's word alone. Sick leave is only valid, and only paid, if certified by a registered medical practitioner (or a practitioner appointed by the employer, where the employer maintains one) — and the employee has to notify the employer within 48 hours of the leave starting. Miss that notification window without a reasonable excuse, and the absence isn't automatically protected as sick leave.
Where this collides with scheduling in practice
For shift-based teams, the operational risk isn't the entitlement itself — it's not having a system that actually distinguishes "called in sick, no certificate yet," "certified sick leave," and "hospitalisation leave" on the roster, because they draw from the same annual pool but are tracked, and sometimes reimbursed, differently. A roster that just marks someone "off" for all three loses the paper trail you'd need if a dispute over pay or entitlement balance ever comes up.
The practical takeaway
Confirm your team actually knows the 48-hour notification rule — it's the single most common reason a legitimately sick employee ends up marked as an unauthorised absence — and make sure your records separate ordinary sick leave from hospitalisation leave rather than lumping every "medical" absence into one bucket.