Anywhere I've worked (UK) there's been a limit to the number of sick days you can take and restrictions on having to have a doctors note depending how long you were off. Currently I think I'm allowed 5 in a year off and after 3 within a week I need a note from a doctor.
Take more than 5 days off and you're relying on good will and have to attend meetings to explain it, in theory you might get dumped to statutory pay.
In terms of family emergencies you either take them as annual leave or you rely on goodwill. Normally I've been able to get half days for funerals but that's based on the IT world where they know I'm making up time for them regularly.
If you take time off long-term due to illness, you will get paid either the amount of sick pay that's listed in your employment contract, or Statutory Sick Pay, which is about £80 per week, whichever is higher. You might also qualify for state benefits – housing allowance etc.
You can claim statutory for 28 weeks, but your contract might allow more than this. After the 28 weeks, you switch entirely to the benefits system until you are fit enough to work again, but your employer doesn't have to take you on again after this.
My father was long-term sick, and was paid at 100% pay for 6 months, then 50% pay for a further 6 months, which was part of his contract. His employer extended the 50% pay to a total of a year out of goodwill.
Rob covers the basics below but bear in mind you can take out insurance policies that pay out if you have to take long-term sick absence.
Obviously these thing vary depending on age etc but my girlfriend has a policy like this and one for unemployment any they aren't preclusively expensive.
So it depends on the employer. I think there is a mandated 8 days of sick/carers leave per year - on top of the Annual Leave entitlements. Some places (think Retail) are going to insist upon a Doctors Certificate to prove you were ill (especiallly on Monday/Friday). I work for a large 3 letter IT multinational and we have some incredible amount of sick-leave available if we need it. (I've used 2 days in 5 years though - sometimes I feel I should get sick more often.).
I don't believe that any of these leave dates are paid for by the government - but they are specifies as conditions of employment through Government legislation. It basically becomes a cost of hiring a permanent employee (vs a contractor). An employee will be absent approx 6-7 weeks of the year - 4 weeks annual leave, 1 week sick, 2 weeks public holidays (Christmas, Easter, Melbourne Cup)
Yes - In Melbourne, we have a mandated Public Holiday for a horse race.
More Swedish info: you call in sick, then stay in bed and try to get well. You don't get paid the first day (or maybe two days, not sure...), but after that you get 80% of your normal pay from your employer the following two weeks. If you're sick for more than two weeks, you no longer get paid by your employer - instead you get the same 80% from the State(tm). You might have to provide a statement from a doctor supporting your claim of sickness.
If you're unable to continue doing your normal work due to some injury, you employer is expected to try to find other tasks for you that you can do despite your injury. If they cannot, you're expected to find a new job that you can perform. During this time you get 80% from the state.
There are exceptions and lots and lots of rules about all of this, but the general principles should be fairly correct.
In general it seems to work fairly well, but as with any system there are both people who abuse it /fraud)and people who get abused by it (get defined out of the system because they're "not sick enough" - they're treated as unemployed instead).
There was a study recently with the conclusion that there is 5-10% over spending in the system (e.g. people get more than they were supposed to if everyone filled in every form correctly), including both mistakes and fraud. In my opinion that's pretty good.
Depending on the country (I believe this applies to most of Western Europe), if you or anyone in your family is sick then you call in sick. It doesn't count against your holidays. And you can be out sick as long as necessary. I've heard some being out sick for a 2 months. Reason is the government covers sick days (they reimburse the employer 80%). You will need to see a doctor who will put down how many days you need to recover.
So no their isn't a "pile" of bankable sick days. Just know if you are sick for too long you go on disability which is a separate matter I'm not familiar with.
France here as well, here's what applies for employees: if you're sick you go to the doctor, and he's the one who decides if you must get an "arrêt de travail" for X days which is an official paper stating you shouldn't work, based on your medical condition.
Then there's the question of will you get paid or not - under a certain amount of days you won't be paid (I think it's 3). After that other mechanisms kick in.
Family emergency is usually in the holidays pile. Some companies allow 1 day off per year if someone dies.
You can also (based on company agreement) take a day off and just decide not to get paid.
We don't have an allocation for sick/emergency days (for salaried workers) so there are essentially infinite sick days. It's assumed that you won't abuse the "privilege" since it would be hard to make your deadlines if you did so.
I've actually been (gently) scolded for using a vacation day instead of a sick day to take care of my wife when she was ill.
