Sick leave eligibility and entitlement

Eligibility

You are entitled to paid outpatient sick leave and paid hospitalisation leave if:

• You are covered under the Employment Act.
• You have served your employer for at least 3 months.
• You have informed or tried to inform your employer within 48 hours of your absence.

Paid outpatient sick leave

To qualify for paid sick leave, you must be certified to be unfit for work by a medical practitioner registered under the Medical Registration Act or Dental Registration Act.

Paid hospitalisation leave

Paid hospitalisation leave is intended to cover the period that a hospital doctor deems that an employee requires hospital care, in other words:

• When the employee is either warded or underwent day surgery.
• When the employee is not hospitalised but requires bed rest, for example pregnancy-related complications.
• When the employee requires rest or further medical treatment for the condition after his discharge from the hospital to recover.

There may also be other specific circumstances such as Quarantine Orders as required by law which would qualify employees for hospitalisation leave.

Paid hospitalisation leave is not an extension of paid outpatient sick leave.

To qualify for paid hospitalisation leave, you must be:

• Warded in a hospital as an in-patient or for day surgery.
• Quarantined under any written law.
• Certified that you require hospitalisation, further rest or medical treatment after discharge from hospital, by a medical practitioner who can admit patients into hospitals. Medical practitioners from national specialty centres and ambulatory surgical centres may also be able to admit patients into a hospital.

Cosmetic procedures

Employers are not required to grant paid sick leave or pay medical consultation fees for cosmetic procedures. The medical practitioner performing the examination will decide whether a procedure is for cosmetic reasons.

Your company policy may cover this as an employee medical benefit.

Entitlement

The number of days of paid sick leave you are entitled to depends on your period of service, up to 14 days for paid outpatient sick leave and 60 days for paid hospitalisation leave. The 60 days of paid hospitalisation leave includes the 14 days paid outpatient sick leave entitlement.

If you have worked for 6 months or more, you will get the full entitlement.

Pro-rated paid sick leave for new hires (under 6 months)

If you are a new employee, paid sick leave is pro-rated according to your length of service.

Your month of service begins from the day you start work with your employer.

You must have worked for at least 3 months to be entitled to paid outpatient sick leave or paid hospitalisation leave.

Between 3 and 6 months of service, your entitlement is pro-rated.

The table below shows an example of an employee who starts work on 13 February 2023. Between 13 February to 12 May 2023, any sick leave taken will be unpaid.

Number of months of service completed	Entitled to paid sick leave on	Paid outpatient sick leave (days)	Paid hospitalisation leave (days)
3	13 May	5	15
4	13 June	8	30
5	13 July	11	45
6 and thereafter	13 August	14	60

Limits on paid sick leave days

The amount of paid outpatient sick leave and paid hospitalisation leave you can take is capped at your sick leave entitlement.

If you have already taken 14 days of paid outpatient sick leave in a year, the number of days of paid hospitalisation leave that you can take is 46 days (60 - 14 = 46).
 

Notifying your employer for sick leave

As a responsible employee, you should inform your employer as soon as possible if you are unable to come to work. This allows your employer to plan for alternative work arrangements in your absence.

If you are unable to report for work, the Employment Act requires you to inform your employer within 48 hours. You should submit your medical certificate (MC) when you return to work.