Sick and Hospital Leave

Eligibility

Employees are entitled to paid sick leave and paid hospital leave if the following requirements are met:

1. They are covered under the Employment Act; and
2. They have worked for at least 3 months for their current employer; and
3. They informed / tried to inform their employer of their absence within 48 hours.

Sick Leave

Also referred to as “outpatient leave”.

Employees on sick leave are entitled to their gross rate of pay, excluding any allowance in respect of shift work.

In addition to meeting the eligibility criteria above, the employee must:

1. Be certified to be unfit for work by a medical practitioner registered under the Medical Registration Act or Dental Registration Act; and
2. Produce a medical certificate upon their return to work.

Employees are not entitled to paid sick leave if they fall sick during rest days, public holidays, non-working days, annual leave or unpaid leave days. If an employee falls sick while on annual leave, employers can use their discretion to cancel the annual leave and permit the employee to take sick leave instead.

Sick leave taken on a half working day (e.g. Saturday) should be considered as one day’s sick leave.

Employers are encouraged to be flexible and supportive by providing paid time-off to employees who need to see a doctor for necessary medical appointments. Employees should inform their supervisors of such appointments as far in advance as possible. Employees will still need to provide a medical certificate for that appointment.

Hospital Leave

Employees on hospital leave are entitled to their gross rate of pay.

In addition to meeting the eligibility criteria above, an employee can only claim hospital leave if they are / were:

1. Warded in a hospital as an in-patient or for day surgery; or
2. Certified by a medical practitioner who can admit patients into an approved hospital; or
3. Quarantined under any written law.

Paid Hospital Leave will include the following scenarios:

• The employee is not hospitalised but requires bed rest (eg: pregnancy-related complications).
• The employee requires rest or further medical treatment for the condition after their discharge from hospital to recover (eg: heart attack patients may be directed to recover at home with the assistance of physiotherapists, dietitians, and exercise specialists).

Entitlement

The number of days of paid sick leave an employee is entitled to depends on their period of service.

Employees that have worked for 6 months or more are entitled to:

• 14 days of paid sick leave; and
• 60 days of paid hospital leave*.

* The amount of paid sick leave and paid hospitalisation leave that an employee can take is capped at the employee’s sick leave entitlement. This means that if an employee has already taken 14 days of sick leave in a year, the number of days of paid hospital leave that the employee can take is 46 days (60 – 14 = 46).

Employees that have worked between 3 and 6 months are entitled to pro-rated sick and hospital leave as follows:

Number of months of service completed	Paid sick leave (days)	Paid hospital leave (days)
3	5	15
4	8	30
5	11	45
6 and thereafter	14	60

As leave cycles and entitlements on the system are based on employees’ appointment dates, please ensure that these are entered correctly. For more information about how to enter / change an employee’s date of appointment, please go to:

• Payroll Setup > Employee Setup > Basic Info

Employment Act

It is important to note that the Employment Act sets out the minimum rights and protections for employees. Employers may deviate from the provisions of the Employment Act as long employees are awarded greater rights and protections than what the Employment Act provides.

For more information please see the MOM website.