Sick leave:the pay ladder and how it is counted

The three-stage ladder

Sick days taken within one year are paid in three consecutive stages:

1. 01The first thirty days: on full pay.
2. 02The following sixty days: at three-quarters of pay.
3. 03The thirty days after that: unpaid.

How the single year is counted

The ladder covers all sick leave in one year, not each illness separately. Article 117 says the year starts on the date of the first sick leave. It is not the calendar year or the contract year.

So an employee who takes twenty days, then fifteen more in the same year, does not start again. They carry on from where they stopped: the first ten days of the second absence are still in the first stage and paid in full, and the other five are in the second stage at three-quarters pay.

This is the part that usually goes wrong when done by hand, because you need a running total for each employee across the year, not a calculation for each request.

It never comes out of the annual balance

Sick leave has its own rules and is never deducted from annual leave. An employee who is off sick for twenty days keeps their full annual leave balance.

If an employee falls ill during annual leave, the annual leave stops until the sick leave ends, then continues. A weekly rest day that falls within sick leave is not made up (Article 26 of the Executive Regulations).

If Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, National Day or Founding Day falls within sick leave, the employee is paid in full for those days, whatever stage of the ladder they are at (Article 24 of the Executive Regulations). Sick days backed by an approved medical report are not treated as unexcused absence.

The medical report requirement

Sick leave must be supported by a medical report from an approved source. The employer can check the report with the authorised body.

Time off claimed as illness without an approved report is not sick leave. It is treated as unexcused absence, with the deductions and penalties that apply to it.

Keeping the report in the employee file helps both sides. The employee's days are not counted as absence, and the employer is protected if the employee later claims pay was wrongly withheld.

Protection from termination

Under Article 82, an employer cannot end an employee's service because of illness before the employee has used up the sick leave periods set by the Law. The employee can ask to add annual leave on to their sick leave.

The ban is on dismissal because of illness. If the employee has used up all the sick leave periods and still cannot return to work, the contract can be ended under the applicable rules, with all entitlements paid in full.

Common errors in practice

1. 01Deducting sick days from annual leave, as if they were the same entitlement.
2. 02Starting the ladder again for each illness instead of counting across the year.
3. 03Paying three-quarters from the first day, or paying full pay for all 120 days.
4. 04Recording sick days as absence when there is an approved medical report.
5. 05Dismissing an employee because of illness before they have used up the sick leave periods.