This is something that's becoming more common in the US - "personal time" replaces sick and vacation time. Ostensibly, it's to encourage people scheduling time off than feeling like they need to "burn through" their sick time every year. However, I think it may have to do with paying out accrued vacation time for employees. I'm not well enough versed in HR stuff to speak to that though.

I work for a university in the US now. We get 2 weeks of vacation time, 5 days of personal time (sick + ???), and the university shuts down for almost 2 weeks at the end of each year. On the whole, it's far better than most employers I've had. However, being a parent with a child in daycare causes the problem that I have to burn through my personal days when she's sick so that I have nothing left over when I'm sick - so, it's off to work I go.