Can I Take Leave As an Intern?

Are you an intern? Wanted to take off days but is afraid that you will be reprimanded by your boss or that your graded intern's score will be affected? Let us tell you what kind of leave you are able to take as an intern!

Here are breakdowns of the different kinds of leave you can get as an intern:

• 1. Pro-rated Annual Leave
• 2. Sick Leave
• 3. Rest Days

1. Pro-rated Annual leave

Good news - yes! Interns are entitled to take annual leave on a pro-rated basis if they have worked for at least 3 months! As Singapore’s standard of annual leave is at least 7 days of annual leave in a year (it can be more, depending on your company!), your annual leave would be pro-rated based on the period of time you are working.

Here, any fraction of a day less than one-half of a day off can be ignored, whereas any fraction of a day greater than one-half is counted as one day’s leave. For example, if your internship is a 6 month period, you get 7 divided by 2 days of leave, rounding up to 4 days. However, if the intern misses more than 20% of his working days without the authorization of the employer or without a sufficient justification, he forfeits his right to yearly leave.

2. Sick Leave

Interns can be awarded sick leave as long as they are certified by a medical practitioner, with a medical certificate. Below is a breakdown of how much sick leave is entitled.

3. Rest Days

Interns must have at least one rest day a week. This can be fixed day(s) of the week, as well as days determined by the employer. If the rest day(s) are determined by the employer, the employer is required to compile a roster before the beginning of each month so that the intern is aware of the rest days scheduled for that month.

If the intern works in a shift work schedule, a continuous period of at least 30 hour of rest can be considered as a rest day, provided that this continuous period of 30 hours begins before 6pm on a Sunday.

If the employer requires the intern to work on a rest day, the intern can be paid accordingly:

BONUS: Overtime Pay!

If your employer requires you to work longer than 44 hours a week, 88 hours in any continuous period of 2 weeks or more than 9 hours a day, the intern should be paid an overtime pay of at least 1.5 times his hourly basic rate of pay.

Now that you know your intern employment entitlements, it's time to plan your intern leave wisely but do remember to ask your supervisor for approval!

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