Victoria Police Entitlements

There are many entitlements available to members of the Victoria Police.  The job of this site is NOT to go through all these entitlements or "Conditions of Service".  This site will list just the main entitlements.  All other enquiries should be addressed directly to Victoria Police.  Although all care has been taken in the preparation of these details, you are urged to confirm these details with Victoria Police.

Annual Leave

Much has been said in the past about how much Annual Leave police get, but most are unaware of how this leave is accumulated.

If you are successful in your application to join Victoria Police, depending on your workplace, you will get up to NINE weeks a year leave!  This is a combination of Recreation Leave and Accrued Time Off (ATO).  To accrue ATO, police members work on average 40 rostered hours per week, however are only paid for 38 hours.  Therefore they 'accrue' 2 hours leave per week.  Over a year period that equates to TWO weeks extra leave.

ATO MUST be taken each year, and cannot be carried over from one year to the next unless prior approval is gained.

There is a further two weeks of leave given to compensate for all the public holidays that police may be rostered to work.  That's right....you will have to work some public holidays!  

That leaves FIVE weeks of Recreation Leave, which is only one week more than most jobs.  When you consider that there is no extra pay or allowances for working weekends, you will realise that  police don't get that much leave after all!

NOTE:  Some positions are affected by amended leave provisions.  For example, Prosecutions Division vacancies are now advertised with 8 weeks leave, BUT extra days off are given, such as Magistrates Conference Days.  Some positions attract 4 weeks leave, but include only Monday to Friday work, plus all public holidays off.  The affected positions are NOT operational positions, such as General Duties or Traffic Management Unit etc.

Sick Leave

In addition to the Annual Recreation Leave, members are permitted to take up to 5 sick days per year WITHOUT a medical certificate.  

There are an extra 10 days of sick leave WITH certificate provided.