See Upcoming changes to state employment laws for details on the changes.
This is general information for employers and employees in the WA state industrial relations system on the minimum entitlement to personal leave for sickness and caring purposes.
The minimum entitlement comes from the state Minimum Conditions of Employment Act 1993. WA awards or industrial agreements may provide a better entitlement to employees.
Paid personal leave / sick leave
Full time and part time employees are entitled to paid personal leave. Casuals do not get paid personal leave.
For each year of service (employment), full time and part time employees are entitled to paid personal leave equal to the number of hours the employee is usually required to work in a 2 week period during that year, up to 76 hours. Personal leave accrues on a weekly basis.
Personal leave is cumulative, which means that any unused personal leave is carried over and added to the next year’s entitlement.
An employee can take paid personal leave:
- because the employee is not fit for work due to a personal illness or injury; or
- to provide care or support to a member of the employee’s family or household (see definition of a member of the family or household below) who requires care or support because of:
- a personal illness or injury; or
- an unexpected emergency.
Employees can take personal leave in either whole or part days depending upon the particular circumstances.
Paid personal leave accrues on a weekly basis. A full time employee accrues 1.461 hours of personal leave for each completed week of work (based on the standard 38 hour week), and a part time employee will accrue the relevant proportion of 1.461 hours of personal leave for each completed week of work, based on how many hours they have worked that week.
The Personal leave calculation guide outlines the steps to work out paid personal leave entitlements for full time and part time employees.
Employees are to be paid their current rate of pay when they take paid personal leave.
Visit Minimum entitlements for commission only and piece rate employees for information on how to calculate leave payments for employees paid by commission or piece rate.
Unpaid personal leave for caring purposes
All employees, including casual employees, are entitled to unpaid personal leave for caring purposes.
An employee is entitled to take up to 2 days of unpaid personal leave for each occasion when a member of the employee’s family or household (see definition of a member of the family or household on this page) requires care or support because of:
- a personal illness or injury affecting the member; or
- an unexpected emergency affecting the member.
An employee is able to take unpaid personal leave for each occasion as a single continuous period of up to 2 days, or any separate periods to which the employee and their employer agree.
Employees do not have a specific minimum entitlement to unpaid personal leave for a personal illness or injury. However this will not prevent an employer and employee from agreeing on some other form of leave, including leave without pay.
An employee is not able to take unpaid personal leave for caring purposes if they could instead take paid personal leave. This means that full time and part time employees need to take any paid personal leave they have available before accessing unpaid personal leave.
Definition of member of the family or household
A member of the family or household means any of the following people:
- the employee’s spouse or de facto partner;
- a child, step child or grandchild of the employee (including an adult child, step child or grandchild);
- a parent, step parent or grandparent of the employee;
- a sibling of the employee; or
- any other person who, at or immediately before the relevant time lived with the employee as a member of the employee’s household.
Reasonable evidence / medical certificates
- An employer can require an employee to provide reasonable evidence before they are paid for any time off work on personal leave.
- Reasonable evidence may include a medical certificate, but is not necessarily limited to this – for example if the employee comes to work with a cast on their arm, or the employer actually sent an employee home because they looked ill, or the employer was present when the employee received a phone call to pick up their child from school due to illness, then any of these examples could potentially count as reasonable evidence.
Personal leave and workers compensation
Show moreThe effect of a period of income or workers compensation on an employee’s personal leave accrual will depend on when the period of compensation occurred.
Please note: employees who have received workers compensation that is not under the WA workers compensation legislation (e.g. under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 (Cth)) may have different entitlements.
Periods of income compensation on or after 1 July 2024
Under the Workers Compensation and Injury Management Act 2023 (new WCIM Act), an employee accrues entitlements to personal leave during any absence from work on income compensation on or after 1 July 2024.
For employees covered by the new WCIM Act, the entitlement to accrue personal leave during a period of workers compensation will apply irrespective of any condition within an award or agreement.
Periods of workers compensation before 1 July 2024
For periods of workers compensation before 1 July 2024, personal leave does not accrue unless:
- the employee was performing work during the period of workers compensation, including participating in a return to work program, in which case they accrue personal leave for any time that they perform work;
- the employee was receiving paid annual leave or long service leave while (i.e. at the same time) they were receiving workers compensation payments; or
- the relevant WA award or agreement specifically states that it does.
The Workers Compensation and Injury Management Act 2023 provides that, for any period for which an employee is entitled to receive income (workers) compensation, the worker is not entitled to take sick leave for an absence from work because of the worker’s injury.
If an employer pays a worker any amount as a sick leave entitlement for any period for which the worker subsequently receives income (workers) compensation:
- the amount paid to the worker as a sick leave entitlement is taken to have been paid as, or towards, income compensation; and
- the employer must reinstate any period of sick leave to which the sick leave entitlement relates.
Frequently asked questions about personal leave
Show moreIs personal leave paid out when employment ends?
There is no minimum entitlement for personal leave to be paid out when an employee resigns, is made redundant or dismissed.
What happens when a public holiday falls during a period of personal leave?
If an employee is on a period of paid personal leave, they do not have a minimum entitlement to payment for a public holiday because they are not required to work solely because it is a public holiday, but rather are absent because they are on a period of personal leave.
However, a WA award or industrial agreement may provide for employees to have paid public holidays which fall during a period of leave.
- If you are covered by a WA award, please check the specific provisions in any relevant award by viewing the award on the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission website
- If you are covered by an industrial agreement, please check the specific provisions in the agreement by contacting the human resources area of your employing organisation.
What happens when an employee has run out of personal leave?
In most circumstances, if an employee has used up all of their personal leave then they are not entitled to be paid for any further time they have off work for illness, injury or caring purposes. There are a limited number of WA awards that provide for annual leave to be used in situations where personal leave has been exhausted.
What was the previous minimum entitlement to sick leave / carer’s leave?
On 20 June 2022, the Minimum Conditions of Employment Act was amended to combine the provisions for paid sick leave and paid carer's leave that previously applied and create a combined entitlement to paid personal leave for full time and part time employees. The previous cap on the number of hours of leave that could be used for caring purposes in one year was also removed.
The personal leave / sick leave minimum entitlement under the Minimum Conditions of Employment Act has been cumulative (meaning that any unused leave is carried over and added to the next year’s entitlement) since 4 July 2006.
