Sick leave – is it for sale?

Police Association members sometimes raise the prospect of financial reward for those with accrued sick leave. They also raise, as a possible alternative, the option to donate such leave to the leave bank fund. But is sick leave an asset that can be sold or traded?

Sick leave, or “sick provision”, is governed by the Police Officers Award. Twelve working days are granted per year, and unused days accumulate. If a member exhausts his or her sick-leave entitlement, he or she is provided financial assistance from the SA Police Leave Bank Fund – if still absent from work owing to sickness.

The Leave Bank Fund is an arrangement which operates between the Commissioner of Police and sworn employees, who are granted additional sick leave after they forego part of their annual recreation leave. Through this fund, members with serious illnesses are protected from financial hardship.

No member should underestimate the importance or value of the leave bank fund. It is a system in which all members pay to look after each other in hard times. If, in the private sector, you exhaust your sick-leave entitlement and, then, suffer a serious illness, your employer is not obliged to pay you or, indeed, employ you. You would, in such a case, need to have some form of insurance, or rely on a government welfare payment.

The Industrial and Employee Relations Act, 1994 provides the SA minimum standard of 10 days’ sick leave. The parliament recognizes that people fall ill, and ensures that the employer still provides remuneration for ordinary hours of work. Unlike the leave bank fund, the employer pays in this scenario.

Through enterprise bargaining, some private-sector employers have been providing their employees with annual payouts for accumulated sick leave. Alternatively, an employee may choose to accrue his or her annual sick-leave entitlement to cover long-term or extended illness. Private-sector employees have no leave bank fund.

One might argue that a worker’s ability to sell off sick leave encourages ill employees to go to work. Just how productive or occupationally safe that is becomes a matter of debate. A cynic might suggest that to provide this form of payment in an enterprise agreement is to allow employers a cheap way out and to assist in keeping base-wage outcomes down.

The Police Association recognizes that its members continue to perceive their accumulated sick-leave as an asset with which they should have some right to barter. But it is different from other types of leave, such as annual or long-service. Sick leave allows you to be absent from work when you are ill, and not suffer financial disadvantage.

With a little luck, all members will have large amounts of accrued sick days when they retire or resign. Like most of you, I can name a lot of fellow police not so lucky.

markcarroll@pasa.asn.au

Resource the Force

The Police Association (Victoria) used Resource the Force as the theme for its 2003 delegates’ conference in Melbourne last month. PASA committee member Bernadette Zimmermann and I attended as observers, as did some of our interstate and overseas counterparts.

As the conference unfolded, 52 Victorian delegates tackled issues that virtually mirrored those faced by police officers in SA.

Many jurisdictions have adopted the LSA and intelligence-led policing models and identified the great human-resource allocation required to service them. To fulfil these models’ requirements, the Bracks government has guaranteed Victoria Police an extra 1,200 officers. They are to be recruited over the next three years.

To remain on par proportionately with Victoria, SA should rightly expect an extra-officers allocation of some significance.

New South Wales and Queensland have had similar significant increases in numbers.

In July, former Qld police commissioner, James O’Sullivan, identified staffing issues in NT in An assessment of resource requirements of the Northern Territory Police.

The NT police force has 960 officers.

The O’Sullivan report asserted that:
“The assessed needs are:

• An additional 150 Police, Personnel (148) constables (and 2 PAUX), including some more senior ranks to address current policing priorities and issues.
• An additional 28 Aboriginal community police officers to ensure that ACPO’s in existing locations are not working alone.
• An additional 37 professional and technical positions and 50 administrative support positions that will directly support or take over roles currently performed by police and ensure more police are available for delivering core policing services.”

The Northern Territory Government has agreed to the recommendations.

Other issues raised at the conference included:

• Housing standards.
• Staffing allocation.
• Selections and promotions.
• Allowances.
• Difficult-to-fill locations.
• Part-time employment.
• Rosters.

Police Association (Victoria) president, Shane Butler, and secretary, Paul Mullett, welcomed observers. They applauded PASA for the support it provided in their last and highly successful EB campaign.

Observers addressed the conference on issues relating to their particular jurisdictions.

I spoke on SA’s most pertinent issues: staffing, staffing, and more staffing.

But, as well, I informed the conference on:

• The SA Parliamentary Select Committee on the staffing, resourcing and efficiency of the South Australia Police.
• Enterprise bargaining, round four.
• Police housing.
• Firearms.
• Selections.
• Uniform.

The ongoing support of interstate jurisdictions is vital to the improvement of conditions and entitlements for all police officers. And to know that a support base exists at both local and interstate levels is indeed comforting.

thomasscheffler@pasa.asn.au