Conditions of Service and Discipline Branch Column

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Accumulated Leave

Question: "I have applied for resignation for personal reasons and my resignation will be effective next month. My wife always says that we have to decorate our home. She knows that I have a lot of accumulated leave and says that the leave could be converted into about $100,000 in cash after my resignation and the money would be sufficient to pay for the decoration. In fact, my vacation leave balance is 180 days. I would like to know whether the leave will be converted into cash immediately upon my resignation and whether the amount equivalent to about six months' salary will be given to me in a lump sum?"

Answer: Generally, an officer will take all his accumulated leave upon the effective date of his resignation, but the leave balance cannot exceed the specified maximum limit. During the leave, he still draws salary month by month.

Only the vacation leave accumulated by a police officer appointed on new terms (i.e. joining the Force after June 2000) will be converted into cash in a lump sum payment upon his resignation. However, if the Secretary for the Civil Service believes that an officer resigns to avoid disciplinary proceedings, all of his earned leave can be forfeited.

Vacation Leave

Question: "I am a PC appointed on local terms. If I plan to travel overseas for two weeks, what is the minimum number of vacation leave days I need to take?"

Answer: Basically, if you take no more than 12 days vacation leave which is not combined with or intervened by other leave types (study leave, sick leave and maternity leave, etc.), the intervening Sundays, gazetted general holidays, and (if you are on the alternate Saturday-off duty pattern) Saturday afternoons and off-duty Saturday mornings are not counted as leave. To be more specific, if you take vacation leave on the Monday after a Saturday-off, and resume duty on the Monday two weeks afterwards, you only need to take 10.5 days of vacation leave to have a 16-day leave (counting from the Saturday-off at the beginning to the Sunday before duty resumption).

The above example is for illustration only. If necessary, please refer to your GR for assessment of your leave plan.