Sick leave in the digital age: Assessing the validity of online medical certificates

The trend towards employees using online medical certificates continues, to the point where employers are reporting overuse and questionable value. The ease of access is indisputable and valuable where it can be difficult to obtain a physical doctor’s appointment, but are online medical certificates actually sufficient evidence to satisfy a reasonable person of an employee’s entitlement to paid personal/carer’s leave?

This article outlines what evidence an employee has to provide an employer to access paid sick leave under the National Employment Standards in the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (NES) and whether an online medical certificate will suffice.

To find out more about personal leave entitlements more generally, we have previously written an article on what evidence and notice is required for an employee to take sick leave. 

When can an employer request a medical certificate?

Employers can ask an employee to give evidence to confirm why they have been away from work on personal/carer’s leave at any time. The NES don’t specify the type of evidence that needs to be given for the leave, but simply provides that the employee must provide “evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person” that the employee is entitled to take personal or carer’s leave.¹

Medical certificates and statutory declarations are the most common forms of evidence that most employers will accept. What evidence is required (and when it is required) may also be detailed in employment contracts, enterprise agreements or any relevant policies, and these sometimes specify when an employee has to give evidence to their employer and what type of evidence they have to give.

Regardless, it is important that it is clear to employees when evidence will be required – for example, for more than two days absence, or the day before scheduled annual leave/public holiday, etc. Absent any information in an employment contract or an enterprise agreement, it is best practice for this to be in a policy, but it may also be situation specific (for example, where an employee has had a significant amount of personal leave as part of absenteeism or ill health management).

A blanket policy requirement to provide a medical certificate for all personal/carer’s leave is likely to be unreasonable as there may be some circumstances where it is not reasonable or possible for an employee to obtain a medical certificate.²

Is a medical certificate obtained online sufficient evidence?

Since COVID-19 it has become more common for employees to obtain medical certificates via telehealth, and more recently online, often at times without even speaking with a medical practitioner and for a nominal fee.

The legitimacy of these certificates in actually certifying an employee’s illness is questionable in some circumstances, particularly where no consultation has taken place, noting that they rely entirely on the employee’s reported illness/symptoms. However, whether it is worth questioning medical certificates obtained online will depend on the circumstances.

In a recent case, Fuller v Madison Branson Lawyers Pty Ltd [2025] FWC 784 (Madison Branson Lawyers case), an online medical certificate was directly under the spotlight. Some months after the employee took personal leave, it became apparent from a social media search (undertaken due to other unrelated concerns the employer had) that the employee was out of town for a football game at the relevant time. For the second day of his personal leave, he obtained a medical certificate wholly online, that is, without speaking to or seeing a doctor. He had never seen the certifying doctor before.

In the face of contradictory evidence showing the out-of-town football attendance, the Commissioner did not accept that the employee was unfit to work, and specifically stated that, “the medical certificate, such as it is, goes no higher than information provided by Mr Fuller himself.”

A similar statement has been made by a Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Judge when assessing an online medical certificate provided to excuse a respondent employer from attendance at court, stating, "As such, it carries no greater weight than if [the co-director] had written a statement to that effect herself…."[o]n that basis, it is entirely unpersuasive of the matters advanced by it".³

These cases indicate that a medical certificate obtained entirely online, without any doctor consultation, will be more open to challenge than one by a physical or online interaction, particularly in the face of any contradictory evidence.

Implications for employers

Where online medical certificates are provided occasionally or in unsuspicious circumstances, there is no reason for an employer to challenge these or take any action. Personal/carer’s leave is an entitlement under the NES, and it is there for employees to use when necessary.

However, there may be some circumstances where an employer may wish to challenge or not accept online medical certificates, particularly:

a.) where circumstances suggest personal leave for an employee is not justified or fraudulent, such as in the Madison Branson Lawyers case outlined above, where an investigation and disciplinary process may be necessary; or

b.) where there are concerning patterns of personal/carer’s leave use amongst employees or for a particular employee, combined with significant use of online medical certificates.

In relation to b.), the first step for any employer facing excessive absenteeism is to undertake a holistic review of the workplace to determine whether there are work factors influencing excessive use of sick leave which could be improved, for example, rostering (creating fatigue, unsociable hours etc), cultural issues, job re-design. Improvements here will likely lead to more positive and long-term change in the workplace.

In conjunction with this, reconsider when a medical certificate should be required from employees, and whether an online medical certificate will be “evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person” of an entitlement to personal/carer’s leave in those circumstances. The cases indicate that it can be reasonable not to accept wholly online medical certificates. It may actually be that a statutory declaration, witnessed by a justice of the peace, is of greater value than an online medical certificate because of the legal implications of making a false statement.

There are various ways this might apply to a particular workplace, for example if analysis indicates patterns of employees taking one day of sick leave prior to annual leave or on the first/last day of a roster, it may be that a policy not accepting online medical certificates in those situations is appropriate.

Alternatively, where an individual employee shows a pattern of regular personal/carer’s leave (for example, immediately after the leave is accrued) it may be that online medical certificates are not accepted as part of an absenteeism management process (for further guidance on absenteeism management, see our previous article Lessons for employers: Managing absenteeism and fair dismissal under the Fair Work Act).

Prior to implementing policy changes in relation to acceptance of online medical certificates consider the best approach to the change management exercise including:

Care should also be taken to ensure that employees who are genuinely unwell, or have long term ill health concerns are not inadvertently adversely affected when more compassionate and supportive processes (which specifically addresses and considers disability discrimination laws) should be instigated in the first instance.

¹ Section 107 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).
² See Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union v Wambo Open Cut Pty Ltd T/A Wambo Open Cut Mine [2019] FWC 7707.
³ Fair Work Ombudsman v More Than Skin Pty Ltd (No 2) [2023] FedCFamC2G 1177.