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Sick Leave Eligibility And Entitlement In Singapore
You are entitled to both paid sick leave and paid hospitalisation leave if you have worked for at least 3 months with your employer. Your sick leave should be certified by a company doctor, a company-approved doctor or government doctor.
Eligibility
If you’re covered by the Employment Act, you are entitled to paid sick leave and hospitalisation leave if:
- You have served your employer for at least 3 months.
- You have informed or tried to inform your employer within 48 hours of your absence.
Paid sick leave
To qualify for paid sick leave, you must to be certified to be unfit for work by a company-approved doctor or a government doctor. This includes doctors and dentists from approved medical institutions.
Paid hospitalisation leave
To qualify for paid hospitalisation leave, you must be certified to be ill enough to be hospitalised in an acute hospital or national centre. This must be done by a government doctor or a doctor appointed by your employer.
If you are certified so, you are eligible for hospitalisation leave, regardless of whether you recuperate in an acute hospital, community hospital or at home.
Entitlement to paid sick or hospitalisation leave
The number of days of paid leave you are entitled to depends on your period of service, up to 14 days for paid sick leave and 60 days for paid hospitalisation leave. The 60 days of hospitalisation leave includes the 14 days sick leave entitlement.
If you have worked for 6 months or more, you will get the full entitlement.
Pro-rated sick leave for new hires (under 6 months)
If you are a new employee, sick leave is pro-rated according to your length of service.
You must have worked for at least 3 months to be entitled to paid sick leave or hospitalisation leave.
Between 3 and 6 months of service, your entitlement is pro-rated as follows:
| Number of months of service completed | Paid outpatient non-hospitalisation leave (days) | Paid hospitalisation leave (days) |
| 3 | 5 | 15 |
| 4 | 8 | 30 |
| 5 | 11 | 45 |
| 6 and thereafter | 14 | 60 |
Limits on paid sick leave days
The amount of paid sick and hospitalisation leave you can take is capped at your sick leave entitlement.
If you have already taken 14 days of sick leave in a year, the number of days of hospitalisation leave that you can take is 46 days (60 – 14 = 46).
Notifying your employer for sick leave
As a responsible employee, you should inform your employer as soon as possible if you are unable to come to work. This allows your employer to plan for alternative work arrangements in your absence.
If you are unable to report for work, the Employment Act requires you to inform your employer within 48 hours. You should submit your medical certificate (MC) when you return to work.
List of approved public medical institutions
The approved public medical institutions are:
- Admiralty Medical Centre
- Alexandra Hospital
- Ang Mo Kio – Thye Hua Kwan Hospital
- Bright Vision Hospital
- Changi General Hospital
- Institute of Mental Health / Woodbridge Hospital
- Jurong Community Hospital
- Jurong Medical Centre
- KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital
- Khoo Teck Puat Hospital
- National Cancer Centre
- National Centre for Infectious Diseases
- National Dental Centre
- National Heart Centre
- National Neuroscience Institute
- National Skin Centre
- National University Hospital
- Ng Teng Fong General Hospital
- NHG Eye Institute
- Ren Ci Community Hospital
- Sengkang Community Hospital
- Sengkang General Hospital
- Singapore General Hospital
- Singapore National Eye Centre
- St. Andrew’s Community Hospital
- St. Luke’s Hospital
- Tan Tock Seng Hospital
- Yishun Community Hospital
- All polyclinics under NHG or Singhealth
- All polyclinics under the National University Health System
Source of Information for Employment, all Work Passes & their related matters is from the Ministry Of Manpower & TAFEP.
You may wish to visit Ministry Of Manpower (MOM) online for detailed information and current updates.
