You are entitled to both paid outpatient sick leave and paid hospitalisation leave if you have worked for at least 3 months with your employer.
Eligibility
You are entitled to paid outpatient sick leave and paid hospitalisation leave if:
- You are covered under the Employment Act.
- 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 outpatient sick leave
To qualify for paid sick leave, you must be certified to be unfit for work by a medical practitioner registered under the Medical Registration Act or Dental Registration Act.
Paid hospitalisation leave
Paid hospitalisation leave is intended to cover the period that a hospital doctor deems that an employee requires hospital care, i.e:
- When the employee is either warded or underwent day surgery.
- When the employee is not hospitalised but requires bed rest (e.g. pregnancy-related complications).
- When the employee requires rest or further medical treatment for the condition after his discharge from the hospital to recover.
There may also be other specific circ*mstances such as Quarantine Orders as required by law which would qualify employees for hospitalisation leave.
Paid hospitalisation leave is not an extension of paid outpatient sick leave.
To qualify for paid hospitalisation leave, you must be:
- Warded in a hospital as an in-patient or for day surgery.
- Quarantined under any written law.
- Certified by a medical practitioner who can admit patients into an approved hospital, including medical practitioners from national specialty centres and ambulatory surgical centres:
List of approved hospitals
- Alexandra Hospital
- Ang Mo Kio – Thye Hua Kwan Hospital
- Bright Vision Hospital
- Changi General Hospital
- Concord International Hospital
- Farrer Park Hospital
- Gleneagles Hospital
- Institute of Mental Health / Woodbridge Hospital
- Jurong Community Hospital
- Khoo Teck Puat Hospital
- KK Women’s And Children’s Hospital
- Mount Alvernia Hospital
- Mount Elizabeth Hospital
- Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital
- National Heart Centre of Singapore
- National University Hospital
- Ng Teng Fong General Hospital
- Parkway East Hospital
- Raffles Hospital
- Ren Ci Community Hospital
- Sengkang Community Hospital
- Sengkang General Hospital
- Singapore General Hospital
- St. Andrew’s Community Hospital
- St. Luke’s Hospital
- Tan Tock Seng Hospital
- Thomson Medical Centre
- Yishun Community Hospital
List of approved national specialty centres and ambulatory surgical centres
- Admiralty Medical Centre
- Allure Plastic Surgery
- Aptus Surgery Centre
- Asia Healthpartners
- Bjios Orthopaedics
- Centre for Cosmetic Rejuvenation & Surgery
- Dr Natasha Lim Eye Centre
- Dream Ambulatory Surgery Centre
- FeM Day Surgery
- Fresenius Medical Care Teck Whye Dialysis Clinic
- Ivor J. Lim Plastic Surgery
- Jurong Medical Centre
- L20 Day Surgery
- Leslie Kuek Plastic Surgery
- National Cancer Centre Singapore
- National Centre for Infectious Diseases
- National Dental Centre Singapore
- National Neuroscience Institute
- National Skin Centre
- NHG Eye Institute
- NHG One-Health
- Novena Surgery
- Novaptus Surgery Centre
- Orchard Surgery Centre
- Precious Surgery Centre
- Shens Clinic
- Singapore National Eye Centre
- SNEC Eye Clinic @ NHCS
- SNEC Eye Clinic @ SKH
- Starmed Specialist Centre
- SW1 Plastic Surgery
- Sweng Plastic Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery
- Tan-Teoh Clinic and Surgery
- West Point Surgery Centre
- Woffles Wu Aesthetic Surgery and Laser Centre
Cosmetic procedures
Employers are not required to grant paid sick leave or pay medical consultation fees for cosmetic procedures. The medical practitioner performing the examination will decide whether a procedure is for cosmetic reasons.
Your company policy may cover this as an employee medical benefit.
Entitlement
The number of days of paid sick leave you are entitled to depends on your period of service, up to 14 days for paid outpatient sick leave and 60 days for paid hospitalisation leave. The 60 days of paid hospitalisation leave includes the 14 days paid outpatient sick leave entitlement.
If you have worked for 6 months or more, you will get the full entitlement.
Pro-rated paid sick leave for new hires (under 6 months)
If you are a new employee, paid sick leave is pro-rated according to your length of service.
Your month of service begins from the day you start work with your employer.
You must have worked for at least 3 months to be entitled to paid outpatient sick leave or paid hospitalisation leave.
Between 3 and 6 months of service, your entitlement is pro-rated.
The table below shows an example of an employee who starts work on 13 February 2023. Between 13 February to 12 May 2023, any sick leave taken will be unpaid.
| Number of months of service completed | Entitled to paid sick leave on | Paid outpatient sick leave (days) | Paid hospitalisation leave (days) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 13 May | 5 | 15 |
| 4 | 13 June | 8 | 30 |
| 5 | 13 July | 11 | 45 |
| 6 and thereafter | 13 August | 14 | 60 |
Limits on paid sick leave days
The amount of paid outpatient sick leave and paid hospitalisation leave you can take is capped at your sick leave entitlement.
If you have already taken 14 days of paid outpatient sick leave in a year, the number of days of paid 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.
