Who is eligible
The Sick Pay Guarantee is an Australian-first initiative giving Victorian casual and contract workers in certain jobs up to 38 hours a year of sick and carer’s pay.
Contract workers are eligible if you meet the eligibility requirements and you don’t have employees or pay anyone to do your work for you.
Contract workers may also be called:
- self-employed workers
- sole traders
- independent contractors
- contractors
- subcontractors.
See the full list of eligible jobs.
How do I make a claim?
See How to claim for more information on how to claim sick and carer’s pay.
Sick Pay Guarantee and tax
Sick Pay Guarantee payments are taxable if these payments form part of your income.
You are encouraged to seek tax advice as it relates to your individual circumstances.
Reviews and audits
Your claim may be audited by the Victorian Government or its representatives. You may need to give more evidence if asked. For more information see the Program Guidelines.
Can I work for more than one company?
You can have more than one job, but you must meet all the Sick Pay Guarantee eligibility requirements. You must not have access to paid annual, personal, sick or carer’s leave in any of your jobs.
Many contract workers have multiple jobs and work for more than one principal contractor. If you’re rostered to work for two different principal contractors on the same day and you get sick, you can claim for the number of hours you were supposed to work for the whole day, regardless of whether your second job is eligible or not.
To be eligible to make a claim, you must not get any other income during the claim period.
Example
Jason has two jobs. He has a casual job as a waiter on weekends, and he’s a food delivery driver a few days a week, when he’s got spare time.
Jason is sick on Saturday afternoon, so he calls the restaurant to let them know he can’t work his rostered shift on Saturday night. By Saturday evening Jason is feeling well enough to drive around, so he picks up a few food deliveries on a rideshare app. Jason is not eligible to claim the Sick Pay Guarantee for his Saturday night restaurant shift because he earned money during that time from his driving job.
Rideshare and delivery drivers
Rideshare and delivery drivers can sign up if you meet the eligibility requirements, including that you don’t have access to paid sick or carer’s leave in any of your jobs.
Arts and creative industries
You can claim the Sick Pay Guarantee if you are hired for contract work or on a flat-fee basis and you meet the eligibility requirements.
Submit your claim for the number of hours you were supposed to work in your contract job.
If you need to submit evidence to support your claim, you can provide:
- a roster
- an offer of work, or
- a statutory declaration which includes your average hours worked. Find out how to calculate your average hours.
Example
Alyx is studying visual arts at uni. She also works as a photographer’s assistant to help cover her rent and bills.
Alyx has her own ABN. It means she’s able to pick up short-term contract work, but she doesn’t get paid sick leave or annual leave from those jobs. She wanted a financial safety net, so she signed up for the Sick Pay Guarantee.
An event photographer hired Alyx to work at a Friday night wedding, from 5pm to midnight. Unfortunately, Alyx got food poisoning at lunchtime on Friday and was too sick to go to work. The wedding couldn’t be rescheduled so Alyx missed out on the job, which means she didn’t get paid. Alyx submitted a claim for the Sick Pay Guarantee. She was paid the national minimum wage for the seven hours of work that she missed.
Gig Worker Support Service
The Victorian Government’s Gig Worker Support Service is for gig workers and platforms in all industries.
They can help gig workers to:
- understand rights, protections and entitlements under workplace and related laws
- make informed decisions about working for a platform
- resolve work disputes, by putting gig workers in touch with Government agencies and other services.
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