Yes. You get paid sick leave during a probation period in Australia, because paid personal/carer’s leave accrues from your first day of employment and probation has no effect on it whatsoever. Probation is a contractual and managerial concept; the National Employment Standards (NES) do not recognise it as a reason to withhold leave.
The confusion almost always comes from mixing up two completely different clocks: the accrual of leave, which starts on day one, and the minimum employment period for unfair dismissal, which is six months. They are unrelated.
Key Takeaways
- Paid personal/carer’s leave accrues progressively from day one, including during probation, per the Fair Work Ombudsman.
- You can only use what you have accrued so far — a new starter in week three has roughly half a day, not ten days.
- A contract clause saying “no paid leave during probation” is unenforceable to the extent it undercuts the NES.
- The 6-month minimum employment period (12 months in a small business) governs unfair dismissal rights only, not leave.
Does Sick Leave Accrue During a Probation Period?
It does, at exactly the same rate as it does afterwards. Section 96 of the Fair Work Act 2009 entitles full-time and part-time employees to 10 days of paid personal/carer’s leave for each year of service, accruing progressively during a year of service according to ordinary hours of work.
There is no carve-out for probationers, trainees, or new starters. Service begins when employment begins.
The same is true of annual leave, compassionate leave, community service leave, and paid family and domestic violence leave. In fact family and domestic violence leave is even more generous to new employees: all 10 days are available in full from day one rather than accruing.
The accrual maths for a new starter
Ravi starts a full-time role on 1 February. He works a 38-hour week, so he accrues 76 hours (10 days) of personal/carer’s leave per year — roughly 1.46 hours per week worked, or about 0.19 of a day.
| Point in Ravi’s probation | Weeks worked | Personal/carer’s leave accrued |
|---|---|---|
| End of week 2 | 2 | 2.9 hours (~0.4 days) |
| End of month 1 | 4.3 | 6.3 hours (~0.8 days) |
| End of month 3 | 13 | 19 hours (2.5 days) |
| End of month 6 (probation ends) | 26 | 38 hours (5 days) |
If Ravi is genuinely ill for three days in his second month, he has about 0.8 of a day accrued. He is paid for that portion and the remainder is unpaid — not because he is on probation, but because accrual is progressive and he simply has not banked the hours yet.
Some employers choose to advance leave to new starters, letting the balance go negative and recovering it from later accrual. That is lawful and generous, but it is a discretionary policy choice, not a requirement.
Can My Employer Refuse Sick Leave Because I’m on Probation?
No. If you are unfit for work because of illness or injury, you are entitled to take paid personal/carer’s leave up to your accrued balance, subject only to the usual notice and evidence rules. “You’re on probation” is not a lawful basis for refusal.
The same applies to carer’s leave — the same balance covers caring for an ill or injured immediate family or household member. And every employee, probationer included, has 2 days of unpaid carer’s leave per occasion once their paid balance is exhausted.
What your employer can legitimately require is the same thing they can require of anyone:
- Notice as soon as practicable, which may be after the leave has already started, together with the expected period of absence.
- Evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person that the leave was genuinely taken for a permitted reason — usually a medical certificate or statutory declaration.
If you do not provide requested evidence, payment for the absence can be refused. That rule applies at every stage of employment, and it is the only real lever your employer has. See sick leave evidence requirements in Australia for what is and is not a reasonable request.
The Real Probation Risk: Dismissal, Not Leave
Here is where the two clocks matter.
An employee cannot bring an unfair dismissal claim until they have completed the minimum employment period: 6 months, or 12 months if the employer is a small business employer (fewer than 15 employees). Probation periods are often set to match that window, which is exactly why the two get conflated.
So a new employee who takes sick leave during probation keeps their leave entitlement but has weaker dismissal protection. That is a genuine vulnerability — but it is not unlimited.
Protections that apply from day one
Two safeguards exist regardless of length of service:
Temporary absence protection. It is unlawful to dismiss an employee because of a temporary absence from work due to illness or injury, where the absence is supported by a medical certificate or statutory declaration and falls within the period prescribed by the Fair Work Regulations. Broadly, absences totalling less than three months in a 12-month period are protected.
General protections. Taking paid personal/carer’s leave is the exercise of a workplace right. Dismissing, demoting, or cutting the hours of an employee because they exercised it is adverse action, and a general protections claim can be made from day one — no qualifying period applies. The remedies can exceed those available in unfair dismissal.
The practical upshot: get a medical certificate. It converts a bare absence into a documented, protected temporary absence.
A Sanity Check for Employers
Run this four-question test on your onboarding pack:
- Does any document say leave “does not accrue” or “is not available” during probation? Delete it. It is unenforceable against the NES and it signals non-compliance to the Fair Work Ombudsman.
- Does your payroll or leave system start accruing on the hire date, or on the probation end date? If it is the latter, you are underpaying every new starter.
- Do your managers know that “you’re still on probation” is not a valid reason to refuse a leave request?
- Is your evidence policy applied consistently to probationers and long-tenured staff alike? Applying a stricter standard to new starters is hard to defend as reasonable.
Getting this right at the source avoids the most common remediation job in Australian payroll: back-calculating accrual for a cohort of new hires. Our broader guide to leave entitlements during a probation period in Australia covers annual leave, compassionate leave, and what happens if employment ends mid-probation.
What This Means for You
- If you are on probation and unwell: notify as soon as practicable, ask for your accrued balance, and get a medical certificate. You are entitled to be paid for the hours you have accrued.
- If your balance is short: the shortfall is unpaid, and that is lawful. Ask whether your employer will advance leave — many will.
- If you are an employer: accrue from the hire date, remove any probation carve-out from your contracts, and treat evidence policy identically across tenure.
- Remember which clock is which: leave accrues from day one; unfair dismissal rights start at six months (or twelve in a small business).
For how the underlying entitlement is structured, read sick leave vs personal leave in Australia.
Leave Balance starts accrual on the employee’s hire date by default and shows the live accrued balance to both the employee and their manager, which removes the “am I allowed to take this?” conversation entirely.
leave emails? Track your employee's leave with Leave Balance
This article is general information about Australian workplace entitlements, not legal advice. Check your applicable modern award or enterprise agreement, or contact the Fair Work Ombudsman, for advice about your situation.