AT832792 - Retail and Wholesale Industry - SDAEA Wholesale Grocers Award 2003 [Transitional]
[26 Sick leave, title changed and substituted by PR968998 ppc 09Dec05]
Any employee who having had at least three months service with the same employer, is absent from work as a result of personal ill health or accident or the ill health or emergency concerning their immediate family or household is entitled to paid leave as detailed below.
26.1 Definitions
The term immediate family includes:
26.1.1 spouse ( including a former spouse, a de facto spouse and a former de facto spouse) of an employee. A de facto spouse means a person of the opposite sex to the employee who lives with the employee as his or her husband or wife on a bona fide domestic basis; and
26.1.2 child or adult child (including an adopted child, a step child or an ex-nuptial child), parent, grandparent, grandchild or sibling of the employee or spouse of the employee.
26.2 Amount of paid personal leave
26.2.1 Paid personal leave is available to an employee when they are absent due to:
26.2.1(a) personal illness or injury; or
26.2.1(b) for the purposes of caring for an immediate family or household member that is sick and requires the employee’s care and support, or who require care due to an unexpected emergency.
26.2.2 The amount of personal leave to which an employee is entitled depends on how long he or she has worked for the employer and accrues as follows:
26.2.2(a) during the first year of service—5-1/3 hours ordinary pay for each complete month of service;
26.2.2(b) during any subsequent year of service—80 hours.
26.3 Personal leave for personal illness or injury
26.3.1 An employee, including a part-time employee, who is unable to attend or remain at his or her place of employment during ordinary hours of work by reason of personal ill health or injury shall be entitled to use the full amount of their personal leave entitlement, including accrued leave, and to payment during such absence in accordance with the following provisions.
26.3.1(a) Entitlement to payment shall accrue as at clause 26.2.2.
26.3.1(b) If in the first or successive years of service with the Company the employee is absent on the grounds of personal ill health or injury for a period longer than his or her entitlement to paid personal leave, payment may be adjusted at the end of that year of service, or at the time the employee’s services terminate, if before the end of that year of service, to the extent that the employee has become entitled to further paid personal leave during that year of service.
26.3.1(c) If the full period of personal leave as prescribed above is not taken in any year then such portion as is not taken shall, provided an employee remains in the service of the one employer or any successor of such employer, be cumulative from year to year.
26.3.1(d) To be entitled to payment in accordance with this clause the employee produces or forwards within 48 hours of the commencement of such absence evidence satisfactory to the employer that his or her non-attendance was due to personal ill health or accident necessitating such absence.
26.3.2 No employer shall terminate the services of an employee during the currency of any personal leave with the object of avoiding his/her obligations under this clause.
26.4 Personal leave to care for an immediate family or household member
26.4.1 An employee is entitled to use up to 10 days personal leave, including accrued leave, each year to care for members of their immediate family or household who are sick and require care and support or who require care due to an unexpected emergency, subject to the conditions set out in this clause.
26.4.2 By agreement between an employer and an individual employee, the employee may access an additional amount of their accrued personal leave for the purposes set out in 26.4.1, beyond the limit set out in 26.4.1. In such circumstances, the employer and the employee shall agree upon the additional amount that may be accessed.
26.4.3 Employee must give notice
The employee must, where practicable, give the employer notice prior to the absence of the intention to take leave, the name of the person requiring care and their relationship to the employee, the reasons for taking such leave and the estimated length of absence. If it is not practicable for the employee to give prior notice of absence, the employee must notify the employer by telephone of such absence at the first opportunity on the day of absence.
26.4.4 Evidence supporting claim
When taking leave to care for members of their immediate family or household who require care due to illness the employee must, if required by the employer, establish by production of a medical certificate or statutory declaration, the illness of the person concerned and that the illness is such as to require care by another.
When taking leave to care for members of their immediate family or household who require care due to an unexpected emergency, the employee must, if required by the employer, establish by production of documentation acceptable to the employer or a statutory declaration, the nature of the emergency and that such emergency resulted in the person concerned requiring care by the employee.
26.4.5 Unpaid personal leave
Where an employee has exhausted all paid personal leave entitlements, they are entitled to take unpaid personal leave to care for members of their immediate family or household who are sick and require care and support or who require care due to an unexpected emergency. The employer and the employee shall agree on the period. In the absence of agreement, the employee is entitled to take up to two days (up to a maximum of 16 hours) per occasion, provided the requirements of 26.4.3 and 26.4.4 are met.
