Personal Leave
Your personal leave (sick leave and carer’s leave) entitlements are provided for by the Tasmanian State Service Award No. 1 Of 2020 (Consolidated) (TSSA). Personal leave means leave granted for:
- personal illness or injury; or
- providing care or support to your immediate family or household who is ill or injured; or
- providing care or support to your immediate family or household due to an unexpected emergency.
As a result of employment changes that were implemented with effect from 1 March 2014, there are two methods of calculating personal leave entitlements for employees covered by the TSSA.
These two methods are known as the Triennium Scheme
Triennium Scheme (TS)
Permanent employees employed before 1 March 2014
Permanent employees employed before 1 March 2014 may continue to accrue personal leave under TS.
Under TS, your personal leave entitlements vary according to years of service. You receive your personal leave entitlements in advance, in three year lots called trienniums.
These three year block are supplemented by five and ten year entitlements which are added on to the credits of the current entitlements. Personal leave does not accumulate.
When a new three year block occurs, the personal leave accrued during the previous three year block is cancelled.
This cycle is repeated every three years on the anniversary of service.
If you take more than an aggregate of 20 working days leave without pay in a personal leave year then your triennium date or accrual date for personal leave will be affected.
Full Time Fixed-term employees employed after 1 March 2014
Full Time Fixed-term employees employed after 1 March 2014, your personal leave is credited in advance after 20 working days of service and you are given 10 days leave for each full year of service.
Your unused personal leave credits accumulate and carry forward each year.
If your personal leave with full pay is exhausted in any personal leave year then you can take unpaid personal leave, provided the absences are appropriately certified by a registered health practitioner.
Your period of personal leave does not extend the period of employment. If you are employed for less than full-time then your personal leave is credited in direct proportion to your employment (compared to full-time equivalent employment).
If you are employed on a fixed-term contract which is renewed or extended after 1 March 2014 then you will be granted personal leave according to the PLAS below. You will carry forward your existing personal leave credits.
Personal Leave Accumulation Scheme (PLAS)
PLAS applies to all permanent and fixed-term employees who commence employment from 1 March 2014.
If you are a full-time employee and working 36.75 hours week and covered by the PLAS then you are entitled to 147 hours of personal leave in each leave year.
You accrue this leave at the rate of 5.65 hours for completing each fortnight of service.
If you are a part-time employee then you accrue personal leave in pro rata to the number of hours you have worked.
Existing employees as at 1 March 2014 can choose to transfer from the Triennium Scheme (TS) to the PLAS. This will be effective from first full pay period on or after 1 July, or 4 weeks after you choose to transfer, whichever is later.
Once you elect to transfer to the PLAS, you cannot revert back to the TS.
If you are on TS and have exhausted your personal leave and have ongoing sickness then it could possibly benefit you to convert, particularly if you have been working for DoE for many years. Do not hesitate to talk to us.
Carers Leave
Carer’s leave enables you to provide care or support for your immediate family member or household who are sick or require your care or support due to an unexpected emergency.
Immediate family member includes your:
- spouse (including a former spouse). Spouse means a person who is married or a person who is in a significant relationship. A significant relationship is a relationship between two adults who have a relationship as a couple and are not married to one another or related by family.
- child or an adult child (including an adopted child, a step child or an ex-nuptial child), parent (including foster parent, step parent or legal guardian), grandparent, grandchild, sibling or step sibling, of the employee or employee’s spouse.
Household means any person or persons who usually live with you.
During each personal leave year, you are entitled to use up to 10 days of carers leave which may be taken as full or part days. This leave is deducted from your total personal leave balance.
In normal circumstances, you cannot to take leave for caring purposes if another person has taken leave to care for the same person.
You may be granted access to an additional amount of accrued personal leave in excess of 10 days by submitting an application for additional carers leave. This additional carers leave is a discretionary form of leave and is not an automatic entitlement.
Family Violence Leave
What conduct constitutes family violence?
Family violence is conduct committed by a person, directly or indirectly, against the person’s spouse or partner, former spouse or partner, member of household or immediate family.
Under section 7 of the Family Violence Act 2004, the following types of conduct constitute family violence:
- Assault, including sexual assault;
- Threats;
- Coercion;
- Intimidation;
- Verbal abuse;
- Abduction;
- Stalking;
- Economic abuse;
- Emotional abuse or intimidation;
- Breaching any existing family violence orders; and
- Damage caused by a person to any property jointly or individually owned.
Jury Service
If you are required to attend court for jury service then you will be granted paid leave.
You will receive a summons approximately 14 days before you are required to attend. As soon as you receive this summons, you must advise your principal/manager.
If you are summonsed for jury service while you are on recreation leave, then your recreational leave should be credited for the time occupied with the jury service. You will be allowed to take any recredited recreational leave at the end of the original period of the recreational leave or at a later date as approved by your employer.
You cannot claim for jury fees but only claim out of pocket expenses (eg. parking fees) as determined by the Crown.
You may make a request to the Sheriff’s Office to be excused from jury service due to current work commitments. To apply for this deferral you must fill in the Statutory Declaration form on the back of your summons. This should be accompanied by a written statement from your principal/manager outlining the reasons why you should be excused due to work commitments.
Both the Statutory Declaration form and the written statement from your principal/manager must be sent together to the Sheriff’s Office as soon as possible. You will be advised by return mail whether your request has been approved or not.
We have a separate fact sheet re maternity and paternity leave.
