Sick Leave
Sick Leave
A member of a police force shall not be entitled to be absent from duty due to injury or illness unless a registered medical practitioner has certified him/her to be unfit for duty.
With the consent of the police authority a member may be absent from duty through unfitness without a certificate for a period not exceeding 7 days including days when he/she wouldn’t have been required to perform police duty.
Sickness whilst on annual leave
PNB Circular 2014/23 states that where an officer is sick during a pre-booked period of leave they should be allowed to take that period of leave at another time, subject to providing evidence they were sick e.g. a medical certificate.
Carry-over of annual leave
At the discretion of the chief officer and subject to exigencies of duty members can carry over to the next leave year no more than five additional days of annual leave outstanding from the current year (in exceptional circumstances the chief officer can allow a member to carry over more); or bring forward to the last month of a leave year no more than five days’ leave from the following leave year.
However, the Police Negotiating Board (PNB) is keen to ensure that the carry over provision is further applied to enable officers to carry over their four weeks’ (pro-rata for part-time officers) Working Time Directive leave entitlement into the next year where a member has been unable to take that leave:
i) where the member has been absent on long-term sick leave but resumed duty late in the leave year and so had not had the opportunity to take all of their annual leave before the end of the leave year; and
ii) because of long-term absence on sick leave which continues into a new leave year.
If a member returns to duty from sick leave within the same leave year, they will be entitled to receive the leave entitlement from that year, minus any leave they have already taken. Where a member returns to duty late in the leave year and so does not have the opportunity to take all their annual leave before the end of the leave year, or where a member returns to duty in a new leave year, he or she will be entitled to carry over four weeks’ annual leave (less any annual leave and bank holidays already taken) into the new leave year. However, any annual leave carried over must be taken within 15 months of the end of the leave year in which it accrued.
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