How Many Mental Health Days Are Employees Entitled To In Australia?

Mental health is a workplace issue, whether you’re running a café with a small team, a growing agency, or a trades business with staff on-site every day.

If you’re employing people, you’ve probably had (or will have) an employee ask for a mental health day - sometimes planned, sometimes last-minute. The question then becomes: how many mental health days a year are employees actually entitled to in Australia?

The short answer is: there’s usually no separate legal bucket called “mental health days”. Instead, mental health-related absences are typically handled through the same workplace laws and entitlements that apply to physical health - particularly personal/carer’s leave under the National Employment Standards (NES), plus any extra entitlements or rules in an award, enterprise agreement, or employment contract.

Below, we’ll walk you through what the law says, how to handle requests fairly (and consistently), and what policies and documents help you prevent disputes while supporting your team.

So, How Many Mental Health Days A Year Are Employees Entitled To?

In most Australian workplaces, employees are not “entitled” to a standalone number of mental health days.

Instead, mental health-related time off is usually taken as:

• Paid personal (sick) leave (for permanent employees), or
• Unpaid leave (if paid leave has run out or the worker isn’t entitled to paid personal leave), or
• Other leave types (e.g. annual leave, leave without pay, flexible arrangements), depending on the situation.

That said, when people search for how many mental health days a year employees get, what they’re often really asking is:

• Can my employee use sick leave for mental health?
• How much sick leave do they get each year?
• Do I have to pay them if they take a mental health day?
• Can I ask for a medical certificate?
• What if they’re casual?

Let’s unpack this in a practical way from an employer’s perspective.

Is A “Mental Health Day” Covered By Sick Leave In Australia?

In most cases, yes - a mental health day can be covered by personal leave (often called sick leave), as long as the employee is not fit for work because of a personal illness or injury. Mental health conditions can fall within this category.

From a legal compliance perspective, it’s generally a mistake to treat mental health differently to physical health. If you would allow someone to take sick leave for the flu, you should treat a mental health reason in a similar way.

How Much Paid Sick Leave Do Full-Time And Part-Time Employees Get?

Under the NES, full-time employees are entitled to:

• 10 days of paid personal/carer’s leave per year, accruing progressively during the year.

Part-time employees are also entitled to 10 days per year, but a “day” is based on the employee’s ordinary hours of work on that day (so the amount of leave they accrue reflects their ordinary hours, rather than being a simple “pro-rata days” calculation).

So, if an employee takes mental health days as paid personal leave, the practical limit is often their personal leave balance.

Do Unused “Mental Health Days” Roll Over?

If the employee is using personal leave, any unused personal leave generally accumulates from year to year for permanent employees.

This is why you might see an employee with a large personal leave balance who can take time off (including for mental health reasons) without running out quickly.

Can An Employee Use Annual Leave Instead?

Sometimes an employee might prefer to take annual leave (for privacy reasons, or because they’re low on sick leave). That can be workable, but it shouldn’t be used to pressure employees into not accessing their personal leave entitlements when they are genuinely unfit for work.

Getting your leave rules clear in your employment documentation (including an Employment Contract) helps you manage these situations consistently.

What About Casual Employees - Do They Get Mental Health Days?

This is where many small businesses get caught out.

Casual employees do not generally receive paid personal (sick) leave under the NES. So a casual employee usually won’t have “paid mental health days” in the way a permanent employee does.

However, casuals can still access unpaid carer’s leave (and unpaid compassionate leave) in certain situations under the NES, and you still need to manage mental health issues carefully due to your:

• workplace health and safety risks (including psychosocial hazards),
• anti-discrimination obligations, and
• fair and consistent rostering and communication practices.

If a casual says they can’t work due to mental health, the typical outcome is:

• they don’t work that shift, and
• they don’t get paid for that shift (unless an award, enterprise agreement, or contract says otherwise).

It’s also worth checking whether your industry award includes specific rules about notice, shift changes, minimum engagement periods, or evidence requirements.

Can You Ask For A Medical Certificate For A Mental Health Day?

Often, yes - but it depends on the circumstances and your workplace rules.

If an employee takes paid personal leave, you can generally request evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person (for example, a medical certificate or statutory declaration). Awards and enterprise agreements can also set (or affect) evidence requirements, so it’s important to check what applies in your workplace - especially where:

• the absence is frequent or patterned (e.g. always Mondays or Fridays),
• the leave is taken around peak periods or after refused annual leave,
• the employee is out for more than one day (common workplace practice), or
• your policy or contract requires evidence in certain situations.

Keep in mind: mental health evidence may be more sensitive. The evidence usually doesn’t need to disclose a diagnosis; it needs to confirm the employee was unfit for work.

Many employers use a statutory declaration where a medical appointment isn’t possible - for example, Statutory Declaration options can be part of a reasonable evidence approach.

Be Consistent (This Is Where Most Employers Slip Up)

If you only ask for evidence when someone says “mental health” but not when they say “gastro”, that inconsistency can create real legal risk.

A safer approach is to have:

• a clear policy on when evidence is required, and
• consistent application across all forms of sick leave.

Confidentiality And Privacy

If an employee discloses mental health information, treat it as confidential and only share it on a need-to-know basis. This is particularly important in small teams where personal information travels fast.

If your business collects and stores employee personal information (including sensitive information), make sure you have appropriate internal practices for handling and storing those records (for example, limiting access and keeping information secure).

How To Manage Mental Health Days Without Creating Legal Risk

Supporting staff and staying compliant is not about having perfect answers on the spot. It’s about having a repeatable process you can apply fairly.

1) Confirm The Leave Type (And Keep The Conversation Simple)

If an employee says they need a mental health day, you can respond with something like:

• “Thanks for letting me know - if you’re not fit for work today, you can take personal leave. Let me know if you need anything.”

In most cases, you don’t need (and shouldn’t push for) detailed personal information. Focus on capacity to work and operational impact.

2) Check Their Leave Balance And Applicable Instrument

Before you approve payment for the absence, check:

• their employment status (full-time/part-time/casual),
• their personal leave balance,
• any applicable award or enterprise agreement requirements, and
• the employee’s contract terms.

This is also where good onboarding processes help. When your contracts and policies are set up properly from day one, you’re far less likely to be making uncertain calls later.

3) Request Evidence When Appropriate (Not Automatically)

Evidence requests should be reasonable. If you request a medical certificate for every single one-day absence, it can damage trust and may create unnecessary friction - especially where access to healthcare is limited.

On the other hand, never requesting evidence can create payroll and fairness issues across your team.

Your goal is a sensible middle ground, clearly documented and consistently applied.

4) Consider Reasonable Adjustments (If The Issue Is Ongoing)

If an employee is experiencing an ongoing mental health issue (or you have reason to believe it may be ongoing), the situation may shift from “a one-off sick day” to an ongoing management issue.

Depending on the circumstances, you may need to consider reasonable adjustments, such as:

• temporary reduced hours,
• adjusted start/finish times,
• work-from-home arrangements (where possible),
• adjusted duties, or
• additional breaks or altered workload expectations.

These issues can quickly overlap with discrimination risk and unfair dismissal risk if managed poorly, so it’s often worth getting advice early.

5) Watch For Flow-On Issues: Performance, Misconduct, Or Investigations

Mental health days sometimes arise during performance management or workplace conflict. If you’re in this territory, you’ll want to proceed carefully.

For example, if an employee is stood down pending investigation, or performance management is underway, a sudden spike in sick leave may happen. That doesn’t automatically mean the leave is illegitimate, and reacting aggressively can escalate the risk.

Where you’re dealing with investigation processes, you may need a legally sound approach such as standing down an employee pending investigation procedures.

Workplace Policies And Legal Documents That Make Mental Health Leave Easier To Manage

You don’t need a 40-page policy suite to be compliant, but you do need the basics in place so you’re not making decisions based on vibes (which is where inconsistency and disputes begin).

Here are documents and tools that commonly help small businesses manage mental health-related leave fairly.

• Employment Contract: sets expectations around leave, notice, evidence, and workplace rules. A tailored Employment Contract reduces grey areas.
• Workplace Policies / Staff Handbook: covers sick leave evidence requirements, confidentiality, workplace behaviour, and communication standards.
• Clear Rostering And Shift Change Rules: especially important for hospitality, retail, and other shift-based workplaces. Rules around minimum notice for shift changes can reduce conflict when absences happen.
• Termination And Performance Management Processes: if the situation escalates, you’ll want legally defensible steps. Topics like termination during probation can be particularly tricky when health issues are also in play.

If you’re unsure what’s appropriate for your team size and industry, it’s usually faster (and cheaper) to get the documents set up properly than to deal with a dispute later.

Key Takeaways

• There is usually no separate entitlement called “mental health days” in Australia - instead, mental health-related absences are generally taken as personal (sick) leave.
• Permanent employees typically have access to paid personal leave (commonly 10 days per year under the NES, accruing progressively), which can be used when they’re unfit for work due to mental health.
• Casual employees generally don’t get paid personal leave, but they may still be entitled to unpaid carer’s leave in certain circumstances - and you still need to manage mental health issues carefully due to safety and discrimination risks.
• You can usually request reasonable evidence for paid personal leave (such as a medical certificate or statutory declaration), but consistency is crucial (and check any award or enterprise agreement rules that apply).
• Clear employment contracts and workplace policies help you respond to mental health day requests fairly and reduce legal risk.

If you’d like a consultation on managing mental health leave and workplace compliance, you can reach us at 1800 730 617 or team@sprintlaw.com.au for a free, no-obligations chat.