In accordance with the terms of the Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023, civil servants may avail of up to 5 days of unpaid leave for medical care purposes in any 12 consecutive months. This leave can be taken as individual days or a block/blocks of days. An absence for part of a day is counted as one day.
While the Act does not confer an entitlement to remuneration and superannuation benefits, an officer on leave for medical care purposes is deemed to be in employment. The absence will therefore count as service for promotion, increments and annual leave.
This entitlement is in addition to existing statutory entitlements to carer’s leave, and force majeure leave and non-statutory entitlement to family illness leave which is provided under Circular 05/2010.
There is no minimum service requirement to avail of this leave type.
As outlined in the Act, officers can avail of this leave to provide care to certain specified persons who require significant care or support for a serious medical reason. Specified persons include:
- Child (including an adopted child)
- Spouse or Civil Partner
- Cohabitant
- Parent or Grandparent
- Sibling
- Any other person to those listed above who lives in the same house as the officer
This leave is approved by line managers and can be processed on the HRMS record once line manager approval has been granted.
Supporting documents are not required by NSSO in order for this leave to be processed.
Supporting documentation requirements can be decided at a local level and checked by line managers before the approval of an applications.
Evidence of the medical need for the leave may be requested, such as:
- A medical certificate signed by a doctor
- Other evidence the employer may reasonably require
- Complete the application form (see below).
- Forward the completed form to your line manager for approval.
- Your line manager must raise a case for Special Leave (unpaid) on the CMS and attach the application form (Details on how to raise a case on the CMS can be found here).
- The NSSO will contact you once your record has been updated to state that your request for Unpaid Special Leave has been approved and processed for the specified date.
Form - Medical Care Leave (Unpaid)
