Conditions of Service and Discipline Branch Column
Salary payments during sick leave

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Question: "My health has all along been good. I have been serving the Force for 10 years and have never taken any sick leave. However, the doctor has suddenly told me that I have to undergo a heart operation immediately, and that I might need a year to recuperate before resuming my duties. This makes me worry about my health as well as my family during the year. Can I draw my salary during the one-year sick leave? Can I use my accumulated leave to cover half-pay or unpaid sick leave?"

Answer: According to CSR 1275, an officer who has 4 years' reckonable service or more may be granted sick leave up to a limit, which is determined by deducting from the maximum entitlement of 182 days with full pay and 182 days with half pay, any paid sick leave taken in the four calendar years immediately preceding the first day of a current sick absence.

Unless he wishes otherwise, an officer will, on exhausting his entitlement to sick leave with full pay, be granted any earned leave for which he is eligible, before being granted half-pay sick leave. Should he wish to be granted his earned leave, this should be exhausted in one stretch before half-pay or unpaid sick leave may be granted.

For example, if an officer has 4 years' or more reckonable service and he took 30 days full-pay sick leave in the past four years preceding the first day of his current sick leave, he may be granted 152 daysÕ full pay sick leave. If he still cannot return to work after taking the 152 days' sick leave, he may be granted earned leave or proceed to half pay sick leave.

Note: According to CSR 1276(1), the maximum sick leave entitlement for an officer who has less than four years' reckonable service is 91 days with full pay and 91 days with half pay.