Personal/carer’s leave, compassionate leave and family and domestic violence leave
Personal/carer’s leave
Paid personal/carer’s leave
Personal/carer’s leave is any time off work because you are sick or you need to care for an immediate family member. It includes both sick leave and carer’s leave.
Sick leave is any leave that you take when you cannot go to work because you are sick or injured.
Carer’s leave is any time off work to look after a member of your immediate family or household who is unwell or if there is an emergency.
Under the National Employment Standards (NES), all employees (except casual employees) are entitled to paid personal/carer’s leave. If you are a full time employee you are generally entitled to 10 days paid personal/carer’s leave for each year you work. If you work part time, you are entitled to paid personal/carer’s leave on a pro rata basis. This means your leave entitlement will be a percentage of what a full-time employee would get, based on the number of hours you work.
Personal/carer’s leave accrues on a pro rata basis. For example, if you work for six months, you will be entitled to at least five days paid personal/carer’s leave (full time employee). Any personal/carer’s leave that an employee does not take for each year they work can be added (accrue) to the next year.
If you take personal/carer’s leave you should be paid for your ordinary hours of work at your base rate of pay.
Under the NES, casual employees are only entitled to unpaid carer’s leave or unpaid compassionate leave.
You should check your award, enterprise agreement or contract of employment to see if you are entitled to more personal/ carer’s leave than the minimum under the NES.
Unpaid carer’s leave
Employees (including casual employees) are entitled to two days of unpaid carer’s leave when a member of the employee’s immediate family or someone who lives with them, needs care or support because:
- they are sick or injured,
- there is an unexpected emergency.
Generally you can not take unpaid carer’s leave if you have paid personal/carer’s leave that you could take instead.
Compassionate leave is any time off work to spend time with an immediate family member or member of your household who has a life threatening illness or injury. It also includes any time off work because an immediate family member or member of your household dies.
Under the National Employment Standards (NES), all employees (except casual employees) are entitled to take up to two days paid compassionate leave for each occasion that a member of their immediate family or household needs support.
If you take compassionate leave you should be paid for your ordinary hours of work at your base rate of pay.
Casual employees are entitled to two days unpaid compassionate leave.
You should check your award, enterprise agreement or contract of employment to see if you are entitled to more compassionate leave than the minimum available under the NES.
Family and domestic violence leave
Family and domestic violence leave is any time off work because you need to deal with the impact of family and domestic violence.
For example, this can include:
- arranging for your safety or the safety of a close relative (including relocating)
- attending court hearings
- accessing police services.
Family and domestic violence includes violent, threatening or other abusive behaviour by a close relative that seeks to control you, or causes you harm or fear.
A close relative can include:
- your spouse, de facto partner, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild or sibling
- your spouse or de facto partner's child, parent grandparent, grandchild or sibling.
Under the National Employment Standards (NES), all employees including casuals are entitled to family and domestic violence leave.
If you are an employee of a small business (with less than 15 employees), you are entitled to take five days unpaid family and domestic violence leave every year. You can take this leave as one block of five days, separate days or any separate period less than a day.
From the 1 August 2023, employees of small businesses will be entitled to take 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave each year. Until then, small business employees can continue to take unpaid family and domestic violence leave.
If you are an employee of a non-small business (with 15 or more employees), you are entitled to 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave every year. You can take this leave as one block of ten days, separate days or any separate period less than a day.
Paid family and domestic violence leave has to be recorded on a pay slip as normal pay for ordinary hours of work, or any other kind of payment for performing work, such as an allowance, bonus or overtime. You can also request that the leave is recorded as another type of leave.
You should check your award, enterprise agreement or contract of employment to see if you are entitled to more family and domestic violence leave than the minimum available under the NES.
For more information, see 
Family and domestic violence leave on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.