AN120179 – Dental Assistants and Secretaries (State) Award
An employee who is unable to attend for duty by reason of personal illness or personal incapacity (including incapacity resulting from injury within the Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998) shall be entitled to be paid at the ordinary-time rate of pay for the time of such time, subject to the following:
(i) Where an employee has been in employment with an employer for less than three months, sick leave taken during the first three months of employment shall not be paid until the employee has completed three months' service with that employer.
(ii) He/she shall not be entitled to paid leave of absence for any period in respect of which he/she is entitled to workers' compensation.
(iii) He/she shall produce a medical certificate or other evidence satisfactory to the employer (which may include a statutory declaration) in order to claim payment for days that he/she is or was unable to attend work.
(iv) Subject to subclause (vi) of this clause, he/she shall be entitled to sick pay on the following bases:
During the first year of employment - 40 hours. During the second year of employment - 48 hours. During the third year of employment - 56 hours. During the fourth year of employment - 64 hours. During the fifth year of employment - 72 hours. During the sixth year of employment and thereafter - 80 hours.
Any period of paid sick leave allowed to an employee by the employer in any such year shall be deducted from the period of sick leave which may be allowed or carried forward in accordance with subclause (vi) of this clause, in or in respect of such years.
(v) The right under this clause shall accumulate from year to year so long as the employment continues with the same employer, whether under this or any other award, so that any part of the entitlement which has not been allowed in any year by the employer may be claimed by the employee and shall be allowed by the employer, subject to the conditions prescribed by this clause, in a subsequent year of such continued employment. Any rights which accumulate pursuant to this paragraph shall be available to the employee for a period of 12 years, but for no longer, from the end of the year in which they accrued; provided that for the purpose of this subclause the change of ownership of a practice from one person to another shall not interrupt the accumulation of sick leave in accordance with this subclause.
(vi) For the purposes of this clause, continuous service shall be deemed not to have been broken by:
(a) any absence from work on leave granted by his/her employer;
(b) any absence from work by reason of personal illness, injury or other reasonable cause (proof whereof shall, in each case, be upon the employee); provided that any time so lost shall not be taken into account in computing the qualifying period of three months.
(vii) Service before the date of coming into force of this award shall be counted in the three months' continuous service for the purpose of qualifying hereunder.
