Hi,
I was wondering if anyone knows the policy on sick certificates in Aus. My OH has been off for 2 days and has returned to work to an email that is asking for a medical certificate. Is this the norm?

He did'nt go to the GP because he had a virus ( in fact the whole family went down with it) and there's not a lot that a GP could do. So is there a standard policy for this.

Any feedback would be appreciated,

Thanks in advance

In every place I've worked in Aus a certificate has been required for 2 consecutive days off. In one place it was even as restrictive as you needed a certificate for 1 day if it was a Monday or a Friday or you had already had 1 sick day THAT YEAR!

In my last UK job we could self certify 7 consecutive business days!

Largely down to the employer I think. However (certainly in Qld) they can't insist on being told exactly WHY you were sick. So if your doctor just puts "sick" they have to accept that.

My OH was sick a couple of weeks ago and needed a sick note on the 2nd day too. Seems a bit mad as he wasn't well enough to go to the docs but he had to.

Wherever I have worked we have needed one for 3 consecutive days but there will be individual variations and employers have different conditions - you should have had them clearly outlined in your contract of employment though.

As Polly said though "sick" is good enough, they dont need to know exactly why you are off if the doc says you are unable to work.

You may also want to check your contract as to how many sick days he may take altogether without a sick note - I think we can take 5 in a year without a note but I am sure other employers have different agreements.

Thanks everybody, Had a look at his contract and it's 3 days for a stat dec or Dr's certificate.
Apparently they made an error in there calculations ( because he works UK hours from home) and put three days so he got an automatic email. Problem solved.

Thanks again

Ive been here now for nearly five years. My opinion is that over here you treated far more like children than from what I experienced in the UK.
Ive had the same thing, 2 days or more you need a certificate and again for one day linked to a weekend.
I guess its partly due to the reputation of aussies having "sickies". Unfortunately were all treated the same as a result.

But that's a thing I don't understand...because some people argue that yes the annual leave allowance is generally less in Aus but it's balanced out with unofficially using sickies as holiday - but with policy around sickies seemingly so restrictive I don't understand how that could be the case.

I think it varies between jobs and industries. In my job in financial services we have to have sick notes for more than one day, a monday or a friday or any day after a big event, like the morning after State of Origin or something but my OH's job, tradie, his old boss told him if he didn't have enough days for xmas holidays when they shut down, he could just *happen* to be ill over xmas...

Don't get me started on sick days grrrrrr. If you need a few months off sick your basically screwed and need to use all your annual leave and then you don't get paid. And this about checking up on you if your sick on a monday or after a big event is a joke. Everyone has a sickie now and again, as long as your not a repeat sickie taker I dont see the problem. UK sick policy was much better :-)

I work in banking IT (several banks) and we never get asked for sick notes they just don't care as long as the work get's done.

It's strange isn't it? Some places must just be more strict about it.

Your in the wrong occupation.
Hubby is a teacher and has never seen so many people take days off.

When we lived in Carnarvon it was hilarious the run up to Christmas. The staff were off every other Friday and Monday, obviously Christmas shopping in Geraldton or Perth!

Also our present town, the staff takes loads of days off.

Gems

In my personal experience, many people take one day "sickies" and roll up fine the next day, so never need sick notes. I also have heard people comment about "willing doctors" who get paid for writing a sick note so they don't care whether the subject is sick or not.

The ones that amuse me are women who take a sick day and then turn up for work the following day with a new haircut or hair colour.

Not exactly subtle..