Employment Act 1968 · 2020 Revised Edition · Part 10 · Holiday, Annual Leave and Sick Leave Entitlements
89. Sick leave
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An employee with not less than 6 months of service gets paid sick leave certified by a doctor. The limit is 14 days in each year, or up to 60 days if hospitalisation is necessary. An employee with at least 3 months but less than 6 months of service gets fewer days. Uncertified sick leave counts as absence without permission.
Summary · Drafted with AI, checked against the official text on 30 Sep 2026.
Last amended by an amending law of 2019. 3 amendments in all.
Any employee who has served an employer for a period of not less than 6 months is entitled, after examination by a medical practitioner, to such paid sick leave, as may be certified by the medical practitioner, not exceeding in the aggregate —
employee
“employee” means a person who has entered into or works under a contract of service with an employer and includes a workman, and any officer or employee of the Government included in a category, class or description of such officers or employees declared by the President to be employees for the purposes of this Act or any provision thereof, but does not include any of the following:(a)any seafarer;(b)any domestic worker;(c) (d)any person belonging to any other class of persons whom the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, declare not to be employees for the purposes of this Act;
if no hospitalisation is necessary, 14 days in each year; or
if hospitalisation is necessary, the lesser of the following:
60 days in each year;
the aggregate of 14 days plus the number of days on which the employee is hospitalised.
Any employee who has served an employer for a period of at least 3 months but less than 6 months is entitled, after examination by a medical practitioner, to such paid sick leave, as may be certified by the medical practitioner, not exceeding in the aggregate —
employer
“employer” means any person who employs another person under a contract of service and includes —(a)the Government in respect of such categories, classes or descriptions of officers or employees of the Government as are declared by the President to be employees for the purposes of this Act;(b)any statutory authority;(c)the duly authorised agent or manager of the employer; and(d)the person who owns or is carrying on or for the time being responsible for the management of the profession, business, trade or work in which the employee is engaged;
where the employee has served the employer for a period of at least 3 months but less than 4 months —
if no hospitalisation is necessary, 5 days in each year; or
if hospitalisation is necessary, the lesser of the following:
15 days in each year;
the aggregate of 5 days plus the number of days on which the employee is hospitalised;
where the employee has served the employer for a period of at least 4 months but less than 5 months —
if no hospitalisation is necessary, 8 days in each year; or
if hospitalisation is necessary, the lesser of the following:
30 days in each year;
the aggregate of 8 days plus the number of days on which the employee is hospitalised; or
where the employee has served the employer for a period of at least 5 months but less than 6 months —
if no hospitalisation is necessary, 11 days in each year; or
if hospitalisation is necessary, the lesser of the following:
45 days in each year;
the aggregate of 11 days plus the number of days on which the employee is hospitalised.
For the purposes of this section —
an employee is hospitalised if the employee is warded in a hospital in such circumstances as may be prescribed or is under quarantine (whether or not in a hospital) under any written law; and
an employee is to be treated as hospitalised for any period the employee is not an in-patient of a hospital, or stops being an in-patient of a hospital after being warded in that hospital in accordance with paragraph (a), if the employee is certified, by a medical practitioner employed by a hospital approved by the Minister —
to be ill enough to require hospitalisation during that period; or
to need rest or further medical treatment during that period in order to recover after the employee’s discharge from a hospital.
An employee who absents himself or herself on sick leave —
which is not certified by a medical practitioner; or
which is certified by a medical practitioner not appointed by the employer, but of which the employee did not inform or attempt to inform the employer within 48 hours after its commencement,is deemed to have absented himself or herself from work without the employer’s permission and without reasonable excuse for the days on which the employee is so absent from work.
The employer must pay the employee for every day of such sick leave —
where no hospitalisation is necessary, at the gross rate of pay excluding any allowance payable in respect of shift work; and
where hospitalisation is necessary, at the gross rate of pay.
Despite subsection (5), an employee is not entitled to paid sick leave on a rest day or on a holiday to which he or she is entitled under section 36 or 88 respectively or on any day of paid annual leave or on a day when he or she is not required to work under his or her contract of service or on a day when he or she is on leave of absence without pay granted by the employer at the employee’s request.
contract of service
“contract of service” means any agreement, whether written or oral, express or implied, whereby one person agrees to employ another as an employee and that other agrees to serve his or her employer as an employee and includes an apprenticeship contract or agreement;
An employee is not entitled to paid sick leave for the period during which he or she is receiving or is entitled to receive compensation for temporary incapacity under paragraph 4 of the First Schedule to the Work Injury Compensation Act 2019 or paragraph 4 of the Third Schedule to the Work Injury Compensation Act (Cap. 354, 2009 Revised Edition) repealed by that Act.
Where an employee has served an employer for a period of at least 3 months, the employer is liable to bear, or to reimburse the employee, the fees of an examination of the employee by a medical practitioner, if —
medical practitioner
“medical practitioner” means a medical practitioner registered under the Medical Registration Act 1997, and includes a dentist registered under the Dental Registration Act 1999;
the medical practitioner is appointed by the employer or is a medical officer; and
after the examination, the employee is certified by the medical practitioner to be entitled to paid sick leave.
An employer is deemed to fulfil the employer’s obligation under subsection (7A) if —
the Commissioner, after considering the merits of any healthcare scheme that the employer provides to the employer’s employees and such other matters as the Commissioner may consider relevant, by written order directs that the employer has fulfilled that obligation for so long as the employer provides such a healthcare scheme for the employer’s employees; or
the employer complies with such other requirement as the Minister may, by regulations, prescribe.
An order made under subsection (8)(a) —
may be subject to such terms or conditions as the Commissioner may determine, which the Commissioner may add to, vary or revoke;
need not be published in the Gazette; and
may be revoked by the Commissioner in writing at any time.
This section does not apply to any employee seeking or undergoing medical treatment which, in the opinion of a medical practitioner performing the examination under subsection (1) or (2), is for cosmetic purposes.