Pregnancy sick leave in New Zealand: 10 sick days and special leave

Two separate entitlements, and people usually only know about one

New Zealand gives pregnant employees two distinct pots of time off. Ordinary paid sick leave, which everyone knows about, and a separate unpaid special leave for pregnancy-related appointments, which many people have never heard of and therefore spend sick days on.

Using the right one preserves the other. That is the whole practical point of this page.

Paid sick leave: 10 days a year

Eligible employees are entitled to 10 days of paid sick leave each year, to care for themselves, their partners and children, or other dependants.

Who is eligible

You are entitled to 10 days of sick leave per year if you have been working for the same employer continuously for 6 months, or you have worked for the same employer for a period of 6 months for an average of 10 hours per week, and at least 1 hour in every week or 40 hours in every month.

Accumulation

You can accumulate up to 20 days of sick leave, which means you can carry over 10 days of unused sick leave into the next year. If you have unused sick leave at the end of a 12-month period it is carried over and added to next year's entitlement, up to that 20-day maximum. You and your employer can agree to allow accumulation beyond 20 days in your employment agreement.

Your employer cannot give you less sick leave than this, but can offer more. Unless you agree otherwise, an employer can deduct a full day of sick leave entitlement even if you were only off for part of the day, which is worth knowing before you go home at 2pm feeling rough.

Special leave: 10 unpaid days for pregnancy appointments

This is the entitlement worth writing down. In addition to parental leave, employees who are pregnant can take up to 10 days' unpaid special leave for pregnancy-related reasons such as antenatal classes, scans or midwife appointments.

It is unpaid, which is the trade-off, but it is job-protected and it is separate from your sick leave balance. Ten scans, appointments and classes taken as special leave leaves your ten paid sick days intact for the weeks when you actually cannot work.

Special leave sits under the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987 and is taken before primary carer leave begins. It is one of the leave types Employment New Zealand lists alongside primary carer leave, partner's leave, extended leave and negotiated carer leave.

How this fits with parental leave

Parental leave itself has its own service tests. If you have worked for the same employer for an average of at least 10 hours a week for at least 6 months before your expected date of delivery, you will be entitled to up to 26 weeks of parental leave, usually taken as 26 weeks' primary carer leave. If you have been with the employer for 12 months or more, you are entitled to up to 52 weeks, usually 26 weeks' primary carer leave plus up to 26 weeks' extended leave.

Parental leave payments are separate from parental leave from work, are paid through Inland Revenue, and have their own eligibility test based on having worked an average of at least 10 hours a week for any 26 of the 52 weeks before your expected date of delivery.

A change on the horizon

Employment New Zealand notes that the Employment Leave Act is going to replace the Holidays Act in August 2028, and describes it as a major change to how leave works. Nothing in that changes your entitlement today, but if you are reading this close to or after that date, check the current rules rather than relying on this page.

What we cannot tell you

Your employment agreement or collective agreement may be more generous than the statutory minimum, and many are. Employment New Zealand is clear that an employer can offer more but not less. Read your agreement, because a better term in it applies over the minimum.

Whether a particular absence counts as sick leave or special leave is a factual question about the reason for it, and if your employer disagrees with you, Employment New Zealand's resolving problems service is the route rather than a stand-up argument at the time.

What to do

Tell your employer you are pregnant so the special leave entitlement is available. Book scans, midwife appointments and antenatal classes as special leave. Keep your paid sick days for genuine illness. And check your service dates against the six-month and twelve-month thresholds early, because a few weeks either way changes what you are entitled to.

Parental leave payments are a separate thing again

Leave from work and payment for that leave are two different entitlements in New Zealand, with different tests. Parental leave payments are applied for through Inland Revenue, and to be eligible as an employee you must have been employed for at least an average of 10 hours a week for any 26 of the 52 weeks immediately before your expected date of delivery. Self-employed people face the equivalent test on their own hours.

While receiving parental leave payments it is important that you do not continue working for any employer or your own business, or the payments will stop.

Keeping in touch days

There is one carve-out. If your employer agrees, you may perform keeping in touch days up to a maximum of 64 hours of paid work after the first 28 days of the child being born, without ending your parental leave payments.

Employment New Zealand publishes a parental leave eligibility tool and an eligibility table, which are worth running before you plan your dates, because the six-month and twelve-month service thresholds and the 26-of-52-weeks payment test do not all measure the same thing.