CIVIL SERVANTS AND LEAVE.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 22, 19 September 1911, Page 3

CIVIL SERVANTS AND LEAVE.

NEW REGULATIONS. A

New regulations appertaining to leave of absence in the public service are gaaetted this week. They are asfollow:

Every officer in the public service, whether permanently or temporarily en }PJ«y«d, may be granted by the Minister in charge of the •Department leave of absence for recreation on the following scale: (1) When an officer has served for fifteen years or upwards, not exceeding three weeks in each year. (2) When he has served less than fifteen years, not exceeding two weeks in each year.

The granting of any such leave of absence shall be subject to the express conditions :

(1) That the behaviour of the officer has been in every way satisfactory. (2) That the total intermittent leave during the previous twelve months has not exceeded five days. (3) That absence from illness or accident has not exceeded one week; and (4) More generally, that his official duties have been properly performed. Any or all of the days of absence in excess of the number of days allowed for intermittent sick leave may be deducted from the annual leave of absence granted for recreation. No officer shall be entitled to claim leave of absence as a right, and if for any cause the head of the Department thinks such leave ought not to be granted, he may refuse the same in any case, subject to the approval of his action by the Minister,

An officer failing to avail himself of the annual leave provided for will not on that account be entitled to a more lengthened leave in any subsequent year, unless under special circumstances approved by the Minister. When application for sick leave for anv term extending beyond one week but for less than one month is applied for it shall be granted only on the certificate of a qualified medical practitioner to be chosen by the Chief Health Officer or the Minister in charge of the Department in which the applicant is employed.

If any person employed in the public service is absent from duty more than four times in one year, or if in the opinion of the official head of the Department any member of the staff is inefficient through repeated illness, such absences or inefficiency shall be reported to the Minister in charge of the Department, who may order such person to be examined under the provisions of the Public Service Superannuation Act, with a view to retirement from the public service, as being medically unfit for further dutv

All existing regulations as to leave of absence of officers of the public service not hereinbefore revoked are hereby modified in so fas as they are inconsistent with these regulations. These regulations shall apply to all Departments of the public service, except the Government Railway Department.