Many Acts and awards require the issuing of Certificates by registered medical practitioners. The Certificate, therefore, is a legal document and its content must not depart from fact. To issue a certificate which is untrue, misleading, fraudulent, or improper would involve the doctor (apart from court action for fraud) in a breach of Section 27(2) of the Medical Practitioners Act [NSW] and the possibility of having to face a charge of professional misconduct. The most common certificate requested in ordinary, everyday private practice is that for sickness benefit. No doctor must permit themselves to be persuaded by a patient to write a certificate that is not true in every detail. There can be NO backdating. It has been held that an employer may disregard an employee's medical certificate because it only supported a 'bogus claim of illness'. Should a patient present a doctor's certificate stating that (s)he was unable to attend his/her place of work on a given date because of a certain condition, the doctor's certificate must be dated according to the date of examination and the content cannot state other than that on the day(s) the absenteeism occurred the patient STATED (s)he was suffering from the described condition. If signs or symptoms still persist at the time of examination, the doctor is free to state that fact. Contentious sick leave certificate provisions contained in WorkChoices will be amended for a 'simpler' system, under Labor's new national employment standards, according to the federal Labor Government. The draft national employment standards say it is not 'reasonable' for an employee to be required to provide a medical certificate "for every single absence on account of personal illness". Such a requirement could cause significant personal expense or difficulty for an employee and place unnecessary stress on the health system by diverting resources solely to the provision of medical certificates. However, in cases of an absence extending beyond a short period or repeated absences on particular days, it may be reasonable for an employer to request a medical certificate in support of the employee's request for leave.'