What entitlements apply if a worker is sick on a rostered day off? Are they paid personal leave and entitled to take the RDO at another time?

The Fair Work Act

An employee can only claim paid personal/carer’s leave for a day they are required to attend for work. An RDO is considered a non-working day for the purpose of the Fair Work Act.

Public holidays and RDOs

The situation is different, however, if a public holiday falls on an employee’s RDO. For example, if an employee’s RDO coincided with a public holiday, the applicable modern award may refer to an arrangement whereby the RDO is taken on another day.

Generally, a modern award or an enterprise agreement that allows for the implementation of a RDO system provides that the RDO cannot fall on a public holiday. It is usually to be taken at some other mutually agreed time. This is because the public holiday provisions of the Fair Work Act and the relevant state or territory public holiday law determine which day or days to be proclaimed a public holiday.

The applicable modern award will usually refer to the National Employment Standards with respect to public holidays and provide for an arrangement as to when a day off for the public holiday is to be taken by the employee.

For example, the Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award 2020 (cl.40.5) provides that where a full-time employee’s ordinary hours of work are structured to include a day off and such day falls on a public holiday (other than a Saturday or a Sunday), the employee is entitled to either:

  • 7.6 hours of pay at the ordinary time rate
  • 7.6 hours of extra annual leave, or
  • a substitute day off on an alternative week day.

Reference should be made to the applicable modern award or enterprise agreement to determine what arrangements may be agreed to between an employer and an employee when a public holiday falls on a RDO.

The bottom line: An absence on a rostered day off due to personal illness or carer responsibilities is not counted as paid personal/carer’s leave but as a rostered day off.