The sick pay entitlement for employees on Green Book terms and conditions works on a rolling 12-month basis. Half or nil pay depends on when the sickness absence starts and how many sickness days occurred in the last 12 months.
With five or more years’ continuous service, employees are entitled to 152 days’ full sick pay and 152 days’ half sick pay (other entitlements are available online).
For a new sickness absence, this entitlement is reduced by any sickness days taken in the 12 months before the first day of the new absence.
For example, if an employee went on sickness absence on 21 January 2026, we would subtract any days of sickness absence taken from 21 January 2025 to 20 January 2026 from their sick pay entitlement for this period of sickness absence.
Using this example of a new sickness absence starting 21 January 2026 the employee had the below days of sickness absence in the previous 12 months.
The employee has taken 113 sick days in the last 12 months.
Their entitlement is:
- 152 days full sick pay
- 152 days half sick pay
To work out what they have left, we subtract the 113 days already taken:
- 152 full pay days – 113 sick days = 38 full pay days remaining
- They still have the full 152 half‑pay days available.