Sick leave

Sick leave is paid leave for employees in the event their sickness or injury, or of the sickness, injury, or death of certain other persons. Sick leave is covered by sections 62 to 71 of the Holidays Act 2003.

An employee is not entitled to sick leave within the first six months of employment, however, sick leave can be paid in advance and deducted from future entitlements if you and your employee both agree.

After six months of continuous employment, an employee is entitled to ten days of sick leave, and a further ten days every twelve months thereafter. Employees are in "continuous employment" if they have worked an average of 10 hours per week in the last 6 months, with at least 1 hour per week and 40 hours per month.

Employees are required to notify you as soon as possible if they need to take sick leave.

Sick leave can be used for the sickness or injury of an employee, their spouse, or a dependent.

Unused sick leave accumulates to a maximum of twenty days. Unused sick leave does not have to be paid out on termination.

A medical certificate is required if the sick leave is for three or more calendar days, even if some of those days were not working days.

You can require a medical certificate for shorter periods if you have reasonable grounds to suspect the sick leave is not genuine, and you pay any reasonable expenses the employee incurs in obtaining that proof.

For each day of sick leave taken, you are required to pay the employee's relevant daily pay - that is, what the employee would probably have earned had they been at work.

To pay sick leave

From the front screen click Calculate pays and select the employee from the drop-down list.
Click Leave > Sick Leave Taken.
The Leave Calendar opens. Click the days your employ will miss or has missed because of illness, then click Next.
Enter reason for the leave (for example, 'Back injury' or 'Food poisoning'), then click Next.
Click Confirm.

Can an employee use sick leave during their first week of ACC payment if their injury is not work related?

Yes, injury is specifically included as a purpose of sick leave by section 62 of the Holidays Act 2003.

When an employee is off work on ACC they receive 80% of their usual wages from either their employer or the ACC. Section 71 says that the employee and the employer can agree that the employer will top up that payment to 100% of usual wages by deducting one day of sick leave entitlement for every five whole days of leave.