Sick Leave
Sick leave is paid leave for illness or medical treatment, often requiring a medical certificate beyond a set number of consecutive days.
Also known as: SL, medical leave, sick leave policy
Most policies allow a few days on self-declaration and require a certificate beyond that. The threshold matters more than the number: set it too low and you are demanding paperwork from people with a one-day fever, set it too high and the entitlement drifts into general-purpose leave.
Sick leave is normally not encashable, and often does not carry forward, for the same reason casual leave does not — its purpose is recovery, not accumulation. A policy that pays out unused sick leave quietly rewards people for working while ill.
Where ESI applies, sickness benefit under the scheme runs alongside company sick leave rather than replacing it, and how the two interact should be stated in the policy rather than worked out case by case.
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Leave Management
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See leave managementRelated terms
Casual Leave
Casual leave is short-notice paid leave for unplanned personal reasons, usually limited to a few days at a time and typically neither carried forward nor encashed.
Earned Leave (Privilege Leave)
Earned leave is paid time off accrued through service — typically credited monthly or annually, carried forward within limits, and usually encashable on exit.
ESI (Employees' State Insurance)
ESI is India's statutory health and social security scheme for employees earning below a wage threshold, funded by contributions from both the employee and the employer.
LOP (Loss of Pay)
LOP is an unpaid absence — a day an employee did not work and had no paid leave balance to cover, so the corresponding salary is deducted from that month's pay.