Desk research against primary sources, with the issuing authority linked where a page states an official fee, rule or deadline.
Protection from dismissal covers certified sick leave, not simply time away from work, so a medical certificate documenting the illness is what your employer's obligation actually turns on, rather than the fact of being unwell. The tiers run consecutively in order — the first 15 days at full pay are used before the next 30 at half pay, and only once both are exhausted does the unpaid tier begin — so a long illness moves through the pay scale automatically as the days accumulate.
None of this replaces the need to actually notify your employer and produce a certificate from a licensed doctor promptly — an absence that is never certified is not sick leave in the eyes of the law and can instead be treated as ordinary unauthorised absence, which carries its own disciplinary consequences. Once the entitlement is exhausted and termination follows, the gratuity your employer owes is calculated the same way it would be for any other termination — illness does not reduce or waive it.
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