Tasmania Police leave entitlements
regulations, award and the LSL Act

Tasmania splits police leave across three documents. The Police Service Regulations 2023 set recreation and sick leave. The Police Award No. 2 of 2026 (Consolidated), made by the Tasmanian Industrial Commission in March 2026, covers parental leave and most other paid leave. Long service leave comes from the Long Service Leave (State Employees) Act 1994.

The recruiting site still advertises 14 weeks of paid maternity leave. That figure is out of date: the 2026 award gives 18 weeks to the primary caregiver.

Regulation 7 of the Police Service Regulations 2023 gives 228 hours of recreation leave a year to officers who receive the shift and penalty allowance. That's six weeks of 38 hours. It builds up progressively through the year, and you can carry up to two years' entitlement unless the Commissioner agrees to more (reg 8).

When you resign or retire, unused recreation leave is paid out pro rata (reg 8). That payout is at your salary only: the award says the shift and penalty allowance doesn't apply to entitlements paid on termination (cl 19.4(b)).

Yes, and this is worth knowing. Under award cl 19.4(d), if you get the shift and penalty allowance and go on approved leave, sick leave or leave in lieu of overtime, you keep receiving the allowance, as long as you're expected to return to the same type of roster afterwards.

The allowance is 28% of salary on a 24-hour rotational roster, 26% for SOG and surveillance, 21% on a non-24-hour rotating roster and 15% on other rosters. It is paid instead of all shift, weekend and public holiday penalties, which is why taking leave doesn't cost you penalty rates the way it can in other forces.

The award pays fortnightly salary as annual salary × 10 ÷ the number of weekdays in the financial year. In the current financial year there are 261 weekdays, so one week's pay is annual salary × 5 ÷ 261. Here's what that gives at common pay points from 1 December 2025, with and without the 28% allowance for a 24-hour roster.

Worked example: a top-scale Constable on a 24-hour roster

A Constable at Level 13(ii) earns $107,420. A week of base pay is about $2,058 and the 28% allowance adds about $576. Because the allowance continues on leave, six weeks off is worth about $15,804 to them. Inspectors are off the shift allowance; at Inspector Level 1 ($170,026) a week of leave is worth about $3,257.

The award's recreation leave rules (cl 15.11) are more detailed than most forces publish. These are the ones that affect day-to-day planning.

1. 1

   Give 30 days' notice

   Booking

   Apply formally at least 30 days ahead where practicable, whether or not the leave is on the roster, and make sure you have enough credit to cover it (cl 15.11.1(b)–(c)).

2. 2

   Approval and recall

   Approval

   Leave needs approval and can be directed at times that suit the service. You can be recalled; reg 9 lets you ask to have a day re-credited for each day you're recalled.

3. 3

   Cash out 38 hours a year

   Cash-out

   With agreement, cash out 38 hours a financial year if you take 114 continuous hours or two 76-hour blocks that year. A hardship cash-out is available during long illness or workers compensation absences (cl 15.11.3).

4. 4

   Sick on leave

   Re-credit

   Four or more consecutive days of sickness on recreation leave, with a medical certificate, is counted as sick leave and the recreation leave is re-credited (cl 15.11.2).

5. 5

   Excessive balances

   Over 12 weeks

   Over 12 weeks counts as excessive. Either side can direct leave in blocks of at least a week, with 8 weeks' to 12 months' notice, but never below 6 weeks remaining (cl 15.11.6–15.11.8).

With more than 12 weeks banked for six months, you can give notice to take leave and the Head of Agency must grant it (cl 15.11.8).

Regulation 4 gives 410.4 hours of sick leave a year on full pay: 54 days of 7.6 hours. That's far more than SA's 12 days or the AFP's 18 days. It doesn't cover illness or injury caused in the execution of duty, which goes through workers compensation.

Our data notes say a medical certificate is needed for absences of more than 7 consecutive days or more than 4 occasions a year. Check the current evidence rules with your district before a long absence.

The 2026 award rewrote parental leave (cl 15.7). After 12 months' continuous service, the primary caregiver gets 18 weeks' paid leave, which can be paid in advance, over 18 weeks at full pay, or over 36 weeks at half pay. The secondary caregiver gets 4 weeks paid, plus up to 2 weeks of their own accrued leave.

For a Constable at Level 6 on $85,780, 18 weeks of paid leave is worth about $29,579 at base salary (our calculation). The employer also pays super at the Superannuation Guarantee rate on unpaid parental leave in the first 12 months, and on the unpaid half of half-pay leave.

Police long service leave is governed by the Long Service Leave (State Employees) Act 1994; the award's PALS clause confirms this. You're entitled to long service leave once you complete 10 years of continuous employment (s7).

Since a 2019 amendment, leave is credited at least once a year in hours, using the formula in s12(2): E = 6.5 × A ÷ B. A is the hours you were employed in the year and B is the days a full-time employee would work. For a full-time officer on 7.6-hour days, that works out at 49.4 hours a year, or 494 hours (about 13 weeks) after 10 years. That's our calculation from the Act, not a figure DPFEM publishes.

At Constable Level 13(ii), 13 weeks is worth about $26,752 at base salary. Older secondary sources quote 8⅔ weeks after 10 years. That reflects the pre-2019 rules, so don't plan on it.

PALS (award cl 15.16) is Tasmania's version of purchased leave. You take a reduced salary for a work period, then get a block of leave paid at the same reduced rate. The shift and penalty allowance is averaged over the work period and paid during the leave.

The Commissioner decides which plans are offered, to whom and in what numbers, so availability can change with operational demand. If you're moved during a plan and can't continue, you get a pro rata share of the leave. The award also lets officers apply for reduced-hours service (cl 16).

The 2026 award added and expanded several smaller leave types. Most are capped at a few days a year but are paid at your normal rate.

Tasmania's recreation leave matches SA and the AFP at six weeks, but its sick leave and the way the shift allowance carries through leave are unusually generous.

See every force side by side in police leave entitlements in Australia, or start at the Tasmania Police force guide for pay, promotion and super.