NSW Police leave
every entitlement in the 2024 award

NSW Police leave is set by Section 3 of the Crown Employees (Police Officers - 2024) Award, which runs to 30 June 2027. Some sick and extended leave rules still sit in the Police Regulation 2015, and the award says so where they do. Parental leave was rewritten by a variation made on 12 September 2025.

The leave rules sit alongside your pay. For current pay at every level see the NSW Police salary guide, and for the state of the next deal see the NSW Police pay deal tracker.

Clause 17.1 is short: annual leave on full pay accrues to a non-commissioned officer at 6 weeks (228 working hours) a year. That covers everyone from Probationary Constable to Senior Sergeant, including Detectives and Police Prosecutors.

Commissioned officers are different. Inspectors and Superintendents get 5 weeks (190 hours), unless they are "regularly required to work shift work, Sundays or Public Holidays", in which case they get 6 weeks (cl 17.2).

How leave is debited

Leave is debited by the hours you would have been rostered to work (cl 17.3), not a flat 7.6 hours a day. A 10-hour shift taken as leave uses 10 hours. Only commissioned officers on the 5-week entitlement are debited a flat 7.6 hours a day.

This is the NSW entitlement most officers ask about. If you work ordinary rostered shifts on Sundays or public holidays, you earn extra annual leave at the end of a qualifying year. The qualifying year runs for 12 months from 1 December (cl 17.5.2).

Two other extras exist. Under clause 17.6, every officer accrues 7.6 extra hours for each public holiday observed throughout the state that is not one of the named days (New Year's Day, Australia Day, the four Easter days, Anzac Day, the Queen's Birthday as the award still calls it, Labour Day, Christmas and Boxing Day). Under clause 17.4, an officer attached to a station in the Western or Central Division accrues 38 extra hours a year, pro rata for part of a year.

The dollar figures are calculated by us from the Senior Constable Level 5 salary including the 11.5% loading, divided by 52.17857 weeks and 38 hours. A "working day" in clause 17.5 isn't defined in hours in the clause we read; we've used 7.6 hours, the award's standard day.

Annual leave is paid at your full salary. For non-commissioned officers that includes the 11.5% loading, because the loading is paid as salary. The table shows what a week, your full 6 weeks and a 9-week balance (the ceiling) are worth at each rank on the pay rates from 1 July 2026.

Leave doesn't replace shift penalties. If you usually earn night shift allowances or overtime, your pay over a leave fortnight will be lower than a normal working fortnight. Our overtime calculator shows how much of your usual pay comes from those extras.

Most public servants get a 17.5% loading when they take annual leave. NSW non-commissioned officers don't, and that's by design. Clause 40.1 pays NCOs an allowance of 11.5% of salary for "work performed on weekends, shift work, recall to duty and other incidents of employment", and says it includes "a Loading formerly paid on Annual Leave".

The trade-off works in your favour in one way: you get the loading every fortnight, on every type of paid leave, not just on 4 weeks of annual leave. It works against you if you compare NSW with a force that pays both a shift loading and a leave loading. Commissioned officers get no loading at all, because their salary is set to cover the extra hours.

The award expects you to use your leave. Clause 17.8 says each officer must manage their leave "to ensure there is no accrual of leave above 9 weeks (342 working hours)". It then sets out a process for when you're heading over.

1. 1

   You're notified

   cl 17.9

   The Commissioner tells you in writing when your projected balance within any 12 months will go over 342 hours.

2. 2

   You roster leave

   cl 17.9, 17.11

   You must roster enough annual leave to keep your projected balance under 342 hours. Your wishes are taken into account, balanced against operational needs.

3. 3

   Or you agree a conservation plan

   cl 17.12

   If operational or personal reasons stop you taking enough leave, the Commissioner will consider a written agreement to let you go over 342 hours, stating why and how and when you'll reduce it.

4. 4

   Or you're directed

   cl 17.10

   If you don't nominate enough leave, the Commissioner can direct you to take annual leave at any time of the year with at least four weeks' notice.

Clause 18 lets you apply to buy either 2 weeks (76 hours) or 4 weeks (152 hours) of extra leave in a 12-month period. Applications are considered against operational requirements and your personal needs (cl 18.1.1).

You pay for it through a lower rate of pay. Your ordinary rate, which for this clause means base salary plus loadings in the nature of salary, is reduced by the weeks you buy and spread over the 12 months (cl 18.2).

NSW calls long service leave "extended leave". The basic rules are in Part 6, Division 2 of the Police Regulation 2015, and clause 19 of the award sets the amounts. You become entitled after 7 years' service.

The dollar values assume extended leave is paid at your loaded salary. Clause 19 doesn't say which components are paid, so confirm with payroll before you plan around a figure. A full rostered week of extended leave is debited at 38 hours (cl 19.3.1), and public holidays during extended leave are paid and not debited (cl 19.3.4).

Taking leave at double pay debits twice the hours (cl 19.3.3). That's useful for a short, well-paid break, but double pay is taxed in the fortnight you receive it.

Sick leave on full pay accrues at 15 working days (114 hours) each calendar year, and unused leave is cumulative (cl 20.4.1). It's credited at the start of the calendar year. If you start mid-year you get 9.5 hours for each complete month before 1 January (cl 20.4.3).

Re-crediting rest days and leave

If you're a seven-day shift worker and you're sick on two or more rest days in a rostered week, you can have the second and later rest days re-credited and taken later, with sick leave debited instead (cl 20.5). If you fall ill on annual leave and give a satisfactory medical certificate, that time can be granted as sick leave instead (cl 20.3.7).

Carer's leave and workers' compensation

Once family and community service leave is used up, you can use sick leave to care for a family member, even for part of a shift (cl 21.1). If you've made a workers' compensation claim, sick leave used while it's decided is re-credited if the claim is accepted (cl 20.7.2).

The parental leave clauses were replaced by a variation made on 12 September 2025 and published in the Industrial Gazette on 28 October 2025. The new clause 22 brings police into line with the wider NSW government sector scheme.

To get the 14 paid weeks you need at least 40 weeks' continuous service by the expected date of birth or placement (cl 22.2.1). Paid leave must be taken within 24 months, and a pregnant officer can start it up to 9 weeks before the due date. It can be paid as a lump sum in advance, fortnightly, at half pay or as a mix (cl 22.4.2).

Paid leave is calculated at your ordinary rate of pay at the time you take it (cl 22.4.1). We've included the 11.5% loading because it's paid as salary, but confirm with payroll. The Australian Government's Parental Leave Pay is separate and can be claimed through Services Australia.

Untaken leave isn't lost when you go. The award sets out what's paid and to whom.

1. 1

   Annual leave

   cl 17.15.1-17.15.2

   On resignation, retirement or termination you're paid the money value of untaken annual leave as a gratuity, or you can choose to take some or all of it as leave on full pay instead.

2. 2

   Extended leave you've earned

   cl 19.4

   Once you have a right to extended leave (7+ years), its money value is paid as a gratuity on termination, on top of any other gratuity.

3. 3

   Pro rata from 5 years

   cl 19.2.3

   With 5 to 7 years' service, you get 1 month at 5 years and a pro-rata amount after that, if you're terminated for a reason other than serious and intentional misconduct, or you leave because of illness, incapacity or domestic or other pressing necessity. Removal under s 181D of the Police Act is excluded.

4. 4

   On death

   cl 17.15.3, 19.5

   Untaken annual and extended leave is paid to a surviving spouse (including a de facto partner), then children, then dependent relatives, then the estate.

If you're leaving to join another force, read our interstate transfer guide first. Victoria, for example, can recognise prior police service for personal leave, but only if you apply within 6 months of appointment. Payouts are taxed, so check the ATO's guidance on unused leave payments before you set your last day.