Occupational Injury Leave

If you are certified as being medically unfit to work as a result of a physical injury sustained in the actual discharge of your duties, including approved school activities, you may be granted Occupational Injury Leave.

The scheme provides access to up to 92 days of fully paid Occupational Injury Leave, in a rolling four-year period. This leave will not be part of your Sick Leave record and will have no impact on your access to full or half-pay sick leave during the rolling four-year period.

Yes. Occupational Injury Leave is paid. It is also fully reckonable for progression on the incremental salary scale, and for pension purposes.

In order for Occupational Injury Leave to be granted, the injury sustained must not have been due to any negligence or any act or omission on the part of the teacher. Procedures and protocols regarding personal safety must have been followed and adhered to in the workplace. You should take all reasonable precautions in relation to your workplace safety.

The injured teacher must make an application for Occupational Injury Leave as soon as possible, and at least within seven days of the injury occurring.

Applications for Occupational Injury Leave must be made using the form at Appendix A of Circular 0013/2025.

In exceptional circumstances, such as where a teacher is physically incapacitated as a result of their injury, an application may be made later. However, the application must be made within one month of the injury occurring.

If a teacher is applying for Occupational Injury Leave more than seven days from the date of the injury occurring, the teacher must provide the employer with the reason(s) for the delay, and this may be considered by the employer as part of their decision to approve the application.

The ordinary terms of the Sick Leave Scheme will apply until an application for Occupational Injury Leave has been received by the employer.

The application will be assessed by the employer who must be satisfied that that criteria established in Circular 0013/2025 are met, and that Occupational Injury Leave may be granted.

Where a teacher suffers an accident in the workplace which causes a physical injury, it is advisable to avail of sick leave immediately after the accident. If a teacher returns to duties following an accident in the workplace, but subsequently determines that they are unfit to work, it may impede access to Occupational Injury Leave in respect of this injury.

The application for Occupational Injury Leave must be made within seven days of the injury occurring.

Your employer must notify you in writing within fourteen days whether Occupational Injury Leave has been approved or refused. Where Occupational Injury Leave is refused, the reason for the refusal must be set out in writing. The decision of the employer is final.

Occupational Injury Leave will be recorded on the OLCS under ‘Personal Leave’, sub-category titled ‘Occupational Injury Leave’ or ‘Occupational Injury Leave Extension’, as appropriate.

Pending the development of this leave category on the OLCS, an interim arrangement is in place for schools to notify the DE by email.

ETB schools will record this leave on their relevant ETB system.

In exceptional circumstances, such as where a significant period of absence or hospitalisation is required following an injury, or there is a subsequent injury in the rolling four-year period, Occupational Injury Leave may be extended by a further 91 days in a rolling four-year period, subject to the approval of the employer.  The maximum allowable, including the extended leave, is six months leave in a rolling four-year period.

As above, in order to access extended Occupational Injury Leave, the teacher will make an application to their employer, using the application at Appendix A of Circular 0013/2025, and supported with appropriate medical evidence.

Temporary and non-casual substitute teachers will access to Occupational Injury Leave under the terms of the scheme. Access to this leave will cease at the expiry of their contract, unless followed directly by a “back-to-back” contract (i.e. a subsequent contract, which follows on without any break).

Non-casual substitute teachers availing of Occupational Injury Leave will submit a “Substitute for a Substitute” form, to claim payment for the duration of their absence.

A teacher on Career Break is already on leave from a DE-funded position and cannot avail of any other type of paid leave during their Career Break. As such, teachers on Career Break will not have access to Occupational Injury Leave.

If you are sick or injured while absent on Career Break, you should engage with the Department of Social Protection, in respect of your entitlement to claim Illness or Injury Benefit.

Granting of Occupational Injury Leave is not an admission of liability on the part of the employer.  The granting of Occupational Injury Leave is on a strictly without prejudice basis.

Yes. You must be certified as medically unfit to work in order to make an application for Occupational Injury Leave and will continue to provide medical certificates during your absence.

A medical certificate will normally cover a period of one week, but at the discretion of the employer, certification for periods of up to one month may be permitted.

Depending on your PRSI contributions, you may be eligible for Illness/Injury Benefit during your absence, the value of which will be deducted from your DE salary.

Unlike Illness Benefit, which is only claimed by Class A PRSI contributors, Injury Benefit is available to Class A and Class D contributors.

There is more information here about claiming Injury Benefit.

If for any reason you are not eligible to claim Illness/Injury Benefit during your absence, you should contact Primary Payroll with evidence of the refusal from the DSP, and the deduction from your salary will be adjusted accordingly.

If you accrue 28 days of Occupational Injury Leave in a consecutive twelve-month period – whether those absences are cumulative or continuous – your employer must refer you to the OHS, Medmark. You are required to co-operate with the OHS.

You cannot access two types of leave at the same time, so in general, if you are due to be absent on another type of leave, you will not have access to Occupational Injury Leave.

However, there may be some instances where a pre-existing statutory leave application – such as a period of Parental Leave – may be suspended in order for Occupational Injury Leave to be granted.

The terms and conditions of the Sick Leave Scheme will apply.

Once you have returned to work, you cannot avail of a further period of Occupational Injury Leave in respect of the same injury.

However, a further period of Occupational Injury Leave may be approved for a subsequent injury, subject to the overall limits of the scheme. (i.e. not more than 92 days of Occupational Injury Leave will be available in a rolling four-year period, unless an extension is approved, in which case a further 91 days may be available.)

No. Whether the teacher applies for Leave of Absence following an Assault or Occupational Injury Leave, they cannot avail of both schemes in respect of the same incident.

Per Circular 0013/2025 a teacher may not have access to two different types of leave at the same time, and both of these leaves must be applied for immediately following an injury occurring.

The period of Occupational Injury Leave will end:

• on the date that the teacher is medically fit to return to work (as per the medical certificate for the physical injury, or on the advice of Medmark if applicable); or
• when the teacher’s access to Occupational injury Leave has been exhausted.

If you have been absent on Occupational Injury Leave for more than twenty-eight days continuously, you must be certified as being medically fit by Medmark in order to return to duties.

Once you resume duties, you cannot avail of this leave in respect of the same injury. If you find you are unfit to work following your return to duties, further absences will be addressed under the terms of the sick leave scheme.

Occupational Injury Leave is only available in respect of an injury sustained during the course of a teacher’s duties including approved school activities.

The full terms and conditions of the scheme are set out in Circular 0013/2025.

Circular 0013/2025 was published on 6 May 2025, and states that the terms and conditions with of the scheme will be effective from that date. However, at the Teachers Conciliation Council meeting in September 2024, the DE advised that access to Occupational Injury Leave would be backdated to the start of the 2024/25 school year.

INTO may need to engage with the DE on a case-by-case basis for members who suffered a physical injury in the workplace, which necessitated an absence from school, between 1 September 2024 and 5 May 2025, when the circular was published.