We have that, but it generally involves tending to a sick family member and there's no guarantee of pay.
I'm blessed and I know it. My employer offers up to 10 days of Family and Medical Leave Act time off at full pay.
I've used 4 so far this year because of my dad, and I'll use another May 4 to go with him to an appointment with he gastroenterologist.
Just to clarify, when I said "we" I meant "U.S. citizens."
At my staff job, we get paid to care for a family member under FMLA the same way we get paid if we're sick, if we're on vacation, if it's a holiday. That is, we have X number of PTO days a year to be divided among all of those things.
For me, it's currently almost 8 weeks a year, plus a week carried over from last year (you can do that for a portion of the time).
It always seems like kind of a bummer to me, because some people might spend PTO hiking Machu Picchu and others might spend it sick. Still, I'll admit it does make sense. If the PTO were all divided into separate categories and you never take sick days, you might be resentful that you couldn't use them, or tempted to call in sick when you weren't. Or call in because you wanted to stay up late the night before watching the season finale of
The Walking Dead. 
These days are also used for holidays, which again makes sense because you might not celebrate the standard Christian holidays. Or you might not mind working on Memorial Day (and getting extra holiday pay), etc. Since it's a place where at least a few people have to work every day including holidays, it probably makes sense if you'd gladly work on Christmas but want time off at Passover or whatever.
Meanwhile, they set aside a small number of hours each year that you can accumulate and use if you have a longer term health problem or FMLA issue. Currently, I have <2 weeks' worth, so it wouldn't go far. Sometimes if people have really big problems coworkers will donate hours to them.
And then you can usually get unpaid extended leave, to write a book or do a year-long fellowship, for example. Or maybe to care for a loved one. I think they're pretty good about granting that, though once you use up your vacation days you don't get paid. I'm not sure what happens to your health insurance, etc., during that period. But I believe you get to go back to either your exact same job or at least one comparable.
There is a limit but it did not concern me and has possibly changed. It wil be 16 years in October since I gave up permanent employment and almost 9 years since I did a day of paid (casual) employment 
Brian, I'm curious -- could you briefly explain those terms? I think at one point I calculated that you're in your early 70s (correct me if I'm wrong). What was your permanent employment and how does the category of casual employment differ? What age did you leave each? Could you have continued in either if you'd wanted to?
I'm currently writing a lot about working into later life -- working longer at good jobs has health and cognitive benefits, but unfortunately the majority of people do it because they can't afford to retire. So I'm interested in how the system might be different Down Under. Where I assume things like saving for retirement or paying for medical expenses Medicare doesn't cover are less of a problem.
Topic: Cellar Scribblings (Read 12946323 times)