AN120098 – Butter, Cheese & Other Dairy Products (State) Award
19.1 An employee, other than a casual employee, who has worked for the employer for more than three months and who is unable to attend work because he/she is ill or injured will be entitled to:
19.1.1 up to forty ordinary working hours off in the first year of continuous service without loss of pay; and
19.1.2 up to eighty ordinary working hours off in each of the second and subsequent years of continuous service without loss of pay.
19.2 An employee who is sick due to his or her own serious and wilful misconduct will not be entitled to claim sick leave in accordance with this clause.
19.3 An employee on workers’ compensation with sick leave entitlements under this clause will not be entitled to claim sick leave payments but upon request to the employer will be entitled to the difference between the amount received as worker’s compensation and full pay. If an employer pays the difference, the employee’s sick leave entitlement under this clause will, for each week during which such difference is paid, be reduced by that proportion of 40 hours which the difference paid bears to full pay.
19.4 As soon as is reasonably practicable and within 24 hours of the commencement of an absence due to illness or injury the employee must:
19.4.1 notify the employer of his/her inability to attend work so as to allow the employer to make alternative arrangements; and
19.4.2 state the nature of the illness or incapacity and the estimated duration of the absence.
19.5 An employee must prove, to the satisfaction of the employer, (or, in the event of a dispute, the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales), that he/she is or was unable, on account of such illness or injury to attend for duty on the day or days for which payment under this clause is claimed
19.6 The employer (or the employer’s representative) will have the right to interview an employee who has been absent from duty to ascertain:
19.6.1 whether or not an employee is or has been ill or injured; and
19.6.2 particulars of the illness (including, where applicable, the estimated duration of his/her absence).
19.7 Where the employer’s representative is a legally qualified medical practitioner, the right to interview an employee will include the right to examine the employee.
19.8 Any employee who unreasonably refuses to be interviewed or unreasonably refuses or prevents the examination specified in paragraph 19.7 of this clause will not be entitled to payment for the period during which he/she is absent from duty.
19.9 For the purposes of this clause continuous service includes any absence from work on leave granted by the employer and any absence from work by reason of personal illness, injury or other reasonable cause (proof of which in each case will be upon the employee) any such time lost will not be counted as part of the qualifying period of three months.
19.10 The rights under this clause will accumulate from year to year so long as the employment continues with the employer so that any part of sick leave, which has not been allowed in any year, may be claimed by the employee and will be allowed by the employer, in a subsequent year of such continued employment. Any rights, which accumulate pursuant to this subclause. will be available to the employee for a period of six years, but for no longer, from the end of the year in which they accrued.
