Does Sick Leave Roll Over Each Year?

Yes. Unused paid sick leave generally rolls over from year to year for full-time and part-time employees covered by the National Employment Standards. It does not reset to zero on the employee's work anniversary. The legal entitlement is called paid personal/carer's leave, so the carried balance can be used for the employee's own illness or injury and for eligible caring responsibilities.

Employees continue accumulating leave progressively while employment continues. A payslip that displays only “this year's accrual” may not show the complete carried balance, so check the available hours or ask payroll for a transaction history.

This article provides general information about national minimum entitlements, not legal advice. State public sector systems, enterprise agreements, awards, contracts and workplace policies can provide different or more generous arrangements.

Key Points

• Unused paid personal/carer's leave carries over while employment with the same employer continues.
• There is no general National Employment Standards rule that wipes the balance each anniversary.
• Sick leave and carer's leave draw from the same carried personal/carer's leave balance.
• Full-time employees accrue the equivalent of 10 days per year; part-time employees accrue a pro-rata amount based on ordinary hours.
• Casual employees do not accrue paid sick leave under the National Employment Standards.
• Paid personal leave is generally not paid out when employment ends unless a more generous instrument applies.
• Unpaid leave can pause new accrual even though an existing carried balance remains.
• Payroll errors should be checked against ordinary hours, service and complete leave transactions.

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What “Roll Over” Means

Roll over means unused accrued hours remain available after the end of a service year. If Sofia has 46 hours available immediately before her anniversary, those hours remain and new accrual continues. She does not receive a fresh ten-day cap with the earlier balance erased.

The Fair Work Ombudsman's sick and carer's leave guidance confirms that unused leave carries over to the next year. It also explains that sick and carer's leave is known as personal leave.

The amount shown can change daily or each pay cycle because accrual is progressive. “Annual entitlement” describes the amount built over a year of service at ordinary hours; it does not mean the whole amount must be credited on one date.

Dociva's sick leave entitlements pillar covers the broader right. The focused guide to how personal leave accrues explains why an hours balance may not look like ten identical days.

Sick Leave and Carer's Leave Share the Rollover

Under the National Employment Standards, paid sick leave and paid carer's leave are two uses of a single personal/carer's leave entitlement. The full combined balance carries over; there is not ordinarily one rollover bank for sickness and another for caring.

For example, Daniel carries 70 hours into a new service year, then uses 7.6 hours to care for his injured child. His remaining carried and newly accrued balance can later support his own illness. The payroll portal may label the deduction “carer's leave”, but it reduces the shared pool.

The Fair Work paid leave page states that both forms are part of the same entitlement and describes the hours-based calculation.

Read whether carer's leave accrues separately for the shared-balance question. The separate carer's leave rollover guide approaches the same pool from a caring-absence perspective.

How Much Carries Over?

All unused paid personal/carer's leave generally carries over; there is no National Employment Standards maximum rollover cap. An employee with a low absence history may build a substantial balance over several years.

A full-time employee's annual accrual is based on ordinary hours and is equivalent to 10 days. A part-time employee accrues pro-rata. The actual balance depends on ordinary hours, service, leave taken and periods when accrual paused.

An award, agreement or employer policy may provide extra sick leave with its own rollover limit. Distinguish that additional benefit from the statutory entitlement. A policy cannot remove an applicable National Employment Standards minimum merely by setting a lower internal cap.

The Fair Work personal leave fact sheet summarises the minimum entitlement and its relationship to awards and registered agreements.

When New Accrual Continues or Pauses

Paid personal/carer's leave generally continues to accumulate during paid leave, including paid annual leave and paid personal/carer's leave. It also accrues during periods that count as service under the relevant rules.

It generally does not accumulate during unpaid annual leave, unpaid sick or carer's leave, unpaid parental leave or unpaid family and domestic violence leave. An award or registered agreement may provide a more favourable rule.

This creates two separate questions:

• Does the employee keep the previously accrued balance? Usually yes while employment continues.
• Does the employee add new hours during this period? That depends on whether the absence counts for accrual.

A worker can therefore return from extended unpaid leave with the same balance they had before, but without extra hours for the unpaid period.

What Happens When Ordinary Hours Change?

A change from full-time to part-time work, or the reverse, affects future accrual because new leave is based on current ordinary hours. It does not ordinarily erase hours already accumulated. Payroll should preserve the existing hours and apply the new accrual rate from the effective date of the change.

For example, Lina has 80 personal leave hours when she reduces her permanent schedule from 38 to 22 hours per week. She keeps the 80-hour balance, then adds new hours at the lower part-time rate. If she later misses a scheduled five-hour shift due to illness, five hours are deducted.

Moving to a different roster without changing total ordinary hours can alter the size of a particular day's deduction. An employee working three longer days may use more hours for one sick day than someone working five shorter days, even where their weekly totals match. This does not mean the rollover balance was recalculated improperly.

A temporary roster variation should be checked against the ordinary hours actually scheduled, while the carried balance itself should remain traceable in hours.

Ask payroll to record the opening balance at the change date, the old and new ordinary hours, and each later accrual. Genuine overtime does not ordinarily increase the statutory personal leave accrual, although an award or enterprise agreement may provide additional benefits. Disputes often become clearer when hours are compared rather than counting an abstract number of “days”.

What Happens When Employment Ends?

Unused paid personal/carer's leave is generally not paid out when employment ends under the National Employment Standards. Rollover protects the balance during continuing employment; it does not turn it into a cash entitlement on resignation, redundancy or dismissal.

A more generous award, enterprise agreement or contract may require payment, so check the document that applies. Long service leave and annual leave have different termination rules and should not be confused with personal leave.

When an employee changes employers, the old personal leave balance ordinarily does not transfer to the new employer. Some transfers of employment, public sector arrangements or agreements can preserve service or balances, so obtain advice for business transfers and related-employer moves.

Dociva's guide to personal leave payout on termination covers that separate endpoint question.

Does Sick Leave Ever Reset?

The statutory balance does not reset each year, but records may appear to reset for administrative reasons. Payroll software might display calendar-year usage, an annual entitlement column or a migrated opening balance separately.

A genuine change may occur when employment ends, the worker moves to a different legal employer or an additional policy benefit resets under its own terms. None of those situations proves the core National Employment Standards balance can be erased improperly.

Dociva's article on when sick leave resets provides a troubleshooting framework for payroll displays and employment changes.

The current Fair Work Act 2009 contains the paid personal/carer's leave entitlement and accrual framework. Individual disputes should be assessed against the version and instrument applying at the relevant time.

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Australian Rollover Examples

Full-time employee: Mia starts her anniversary with 52 unused hours. Those hours remain while she continues accruing at her ordinary-hours rate.

Part-time hours: Noah works 20 ordinary hours weekly and carries 24 hours into the next year. His new accrual remains pro-rata. See part-time sick leave entitlements for a calculation example.

Casual employee: Olivia works regular casual shifts but has no paid personal leave balance under the National Employment Standards to carry over. A workplace agreement may provide an extra benefit.

Unpaid leave: Peter takes eight weeks of unpaid parental leave. His existing balance remains, but new personal leave generally does not accrue during that unpaid period.

Surgery: Rani uses 30 hours from a balance accumulated over several years while recovering from surgery. The remaining hours continue carrying over. Dociva's recommended article on surgery and sick leave explains eligibility for the absence.

How to Check Your Balance

1. Request the current available personal/carer's leave hours.
2. Download payslips and a complete leave transaction report.
3. Confirm your ordinary weekly hours and employment type.
4. Compare each leave deduction with the ordinary hours missed.
5. Identify unpaid periods that may have paused accrual.
6. Check whether sick and carer's leave labels share one balance.
7. Read the applicable award, enterprise agreement, contract and policy.
8. Ask payroll to explain and correct discrepancies in writing.

The Fair Work Leave Calculator can provide a general estimate. Complex rosters, transfers or enterprise agreements may require payroll or workplace advice.

Using the Carried Balance

Rollover does not remove the conditions for taking leave. The employee must be unable to work because of illness or injury, or have an eligible caring responsibility, and must give notice and reasonable evidence when requested.

A large balance does not create permission for holidays or unrelated personal activities. Likewise, an employer should not refuse eligible leave merely because an employee has already taken several genuine absences.

Payment is based on applicable ordinary hours and base rate rules, not the age of the hours in the balance. See sick pay entitlements for payment detail.

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Using Dociva

Dociva currently accepts online requests for sick-leave, carer's leave, study and multi-day medical certificates. An Australian registered medical practitioner independently assesses whether a submitted current absence is clinically supported.

A certificate can support a genuine incapacity period but does not calculate, preserve or increase a leave balance. Requests and dates are not guaranteed, and Dociva does not backdate certificate issue dates.

For a suitable request, use the Dociva medical certificate application and provide accurate dates and functional information. Broader online consultations are available for other clinical needs. Direct balance questions to payroll, HR or a workplace adviser.

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