2nd Day sick leave (in the same month) = Annual leave?

[hassen.malek]

Hi there,
Please could you answer this question from a ''legal'' point:
I took 2 days sick leave (with doctor certificate) in the same month, so my company considered the second day as an annual leave, because in their policies every employee has 1 day sick leave/ month. Is it legal to do this? What if someone has an accident and need to be admit to the hospital for 1 week, they will fire him or what?
Please inform me about this.
Thank you.

[HowardCoombs]

What does your contract say?

HC

[PDLM]

The legal minimum is defined here: http://www.labour.gov.hk/eng/public/...seGuide/05.pdf
Anything above that is a contractual matter between you and your employer.

[vinyljunky]

It depends on your company policy, but having said that it seems rather odd. Most companies have an annual sick day allowance (i.e, 10 or 15 days a year), no one I know species a monthly sick leave allowance.

[Claire ex-ax]

Are you in Hong Kong? If so, check the link above (PDLM's post #3).

An employee can accumulate paid sickness days after having been employed under a continuous contract. Paid sickness days are accumulated at the rate of two paid sickness days for each completed month of the employee's employment during the first 12 months, and four paid sickness days for each completed month of employment thereafter. Paid sickness days can be accumulated up to a maximum of 120 days.

An employer is prohibited from terminating the contract of employment of an employee on his paid sickness day, except in cases of summary dismissal due to the employee's serious misconduct.

Also, how long have you worked for the employer?

[Fiona in HKG]

Don't forget this in relation to the granting of sick leave days:

In accordance with the EO, an employer shall grant sickness
allowance to an employee who is employed under a continuous
contract, if:

the sick leave taken is not less than four consecutive days
(unless for any day off taken by a female employee for her
pregnancy check-ups, post confinement medical treatment
or miscarriage, any day on which she is absent shall be
counted as sickness day and, subject to the following
conditions, be paid sickness allowance);

the sick leave is supported by an appropriate medical
certificate depending on the category of paid sickness
days3 taken (Note: the medical certificate should specifythe number of days on which, and the nature of the sickness or injury on account of which, the employee is
unfit for work)

[MovingIn07]

I don't quite understand the point of the above. . . Legally one can't be sick for less than four days? wtf?

[Fiona in HKG]

I don't quite understand the point of the above. . . Legally one can't be sick for less than four days? wtf?

You can, you just aren't entitled to sick leave for the first four days under the EO here. Most companies (the larger ones anyway) contract in excess of this and allow sick days so long as there is a doctor's note certifying they are not fit to attend work - and the more generous ones don't apply the discounted salary for those days.

It's pretty poor protection as most illnesses require one or two days off and of course if applying the law to the letter, that leaves people without any recourse.

[Char Siu King]

A bit OT but never seen people come to work sick as much as in HK. Put on the ol' mostly ineffective non-surgical mask , take it off when speaking in meetings and eating thus spreading even more germs around, and actually never give yourself the time to heal. Sometimes this place baffles me...

[aliendavid1]

A bit OT but never seen people come to work sick as much as in HK. Put on the ol' mostly ineffective non-surgical mask , take it off when speaking in meetings and eating thus spreading even more germs around, and actually never give yourself the time to heal. Sometimes this place baffles me...

True, they would rather get that 1 day of productivity out of you and risk you infecting the whole office. Oh well call it selfish resilience, but there is a fine balance between necessity and abuse. If people are accumalating(sp) those sick days like back home they save them all for weekends or Christmas time.