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, industrial agreements and contracts of employment 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 ordinarily required to work in a 2 week period during that year, up to 76 hours.
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 Calculating paid leave for commission or 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 does 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 or the employee's spouse or de facto partner (including an adult child, step child or grandchild);
- a parent, step parent or grandparent of the employee or the employee's spouse or de facto partner;
- a sibling of the employee or the employee's spouse or de facto partner 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 of their entitlement to paid or unpaid 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 moreFor information about personal leave for employees receiving income or workers compensation, visit Paid leave entitlements and workers compensation.
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.
Does personal leave transfer when a business is sold?
If the new business owner is employing the employees, a WA award may require personal leave to be transferred to the new employer where there is a transfer of business.
What happens when a public holiday falls during a period of personal leave?
From 31 January 2025, if the period during which an employee takes paid personal leave includes a public holiday that falls on a day the employee would ordinarily have worked, the employee:
- is taken not to be on paid personal leave on that public holiday;
- is entitled to be absent from work on that day (or part-day); and
- is entitled to be paid for that public holiday.
That is, the employee is not required to take a day of paid personal leave on a public holiday which falls during a period of leave for which they would otherwise be entitled to be absent from work.
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.
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