Leave Entitlements and Holidays

Full-time and part-time workers are entitled to a minimum of 4 weeks of paid annual leave for every 12 months of continuous service. Shift workers are entitled to 5 weeks of paid annual leave.

• Annual leave accrues throughout the year, so a part time worker who works 2.5 days per week will have 10 full days of paid annual leave, that can be taken over a 4 week period, at the end of a 12 month period.
• Many agreements and awards also provide for leave loading – this is typically 17.5% of your base rate of pay and is paid on top of your normal weekly earnings during your annual leave.
• Annual leave that has accrued and has not been accessed is to be paid out at the end of your employment. This payment will only include leave loading if your agreement or award includes leave loading.
• If during the period that an employee is taking annual leave a public holiday occurs, then the employee is to be paid for this public holiday and is not to be paid annual leave for this day.
• The amount of annual leave an employee has accrued should be visible on their payslip.

Casual workers are not entitled to annual leave.

Personal Leave (Sick Leave), Carer’s Leave and Compassionate Leave

Full-time, permanent workers are entitled to 10 days of paid personal or carer’s leave per year.  Personal leave is for when you are unfit for work due to illness or injury.

Carer’s leave should be taken when you need time off to provide care or support to a member of your immediate family, or a member of your household, who requires care or support because of a personal illness, or personal injury, or an unexpected emergency.

• Paid personal and carer’s leave accrues throughout the year at the rate of your ordinary hours of work. Part-time workers accrue this leave in accordance with the percentage of full-time hours that they work.
• The leave is to be paid at least at the rate of ordinary pay, and at the same time as your ordinary pay would usually occur.
• Personal or carer’s leave should not be paid to you on a public holiday where you are entitled to public holiday pay.
• Workers are entitled to 2 days of unpaid carer’s leave on each occasion that they are required to care for an unwell family member or household member. Unpaid leave can not be taken where the employee could otherwise take paid leave.
• Workers are also entitled to 2 days of paid compassionate leave for each occasion that a member of the employee’s immediate family or household contracts a life threatening illness, sustains a life threatening injury or dies.
• You are required to give notice of your requirement to take leave as soon as is reasonably practicable, and, if requested by the employer, to provide evidence of the relevant illness or circumstance that requires you taking the leave.

Your employer is not obliged to allow for leave if you can’t supply evidence.

You are entitled to access up to 12 months of unpaid parental leave once you have completed 12 months of continuous service with an employer. This applies to all workers, including casual workers.  However, casual workers will need to have worked regularly and systematically throughout the 12 months of their service and have a reasonable expectation of ongoing work in order to access parental leave. Parental leave must be taken in one continuous bloc.

• Pregnant workers may begin their leave up to 6 weeks in advance of the expected date of delivery, but no later than date of the child’s birth. For partners who are not giving birth the parental leave must begin on the date of birth of the child.
• You may request a further period of unpaid parental leave of up to 12 months to start immediately following the end of the 12 month leave period. This request must be made at least 4 weeks before the end of the original leave period. The employer must agree to this request unless there are reasonable business grounds not to.
• You have the right to return to your original position at the end of the leave period, or if their original job is no longer available, then you must be reinstated in an appropriate and comparable role.

To be denied a return to work after parental leave, or to be dismissed upon becoming pregnant, constitutes unlawful termination. However, it is legal to make someone redundant while on parental leave so long as the redundancy is genuine.

Long service leave recognises long periods of continuous service with the same employer (regardless of changes to job title or role) and is available to both casual and permanent workers.

• In normal circumstances long service leave can not be cashed out.
• While long service leave is a minimum standard in the new Fair Work laws, it is generally governed by State and Territory Legislation and by awards and agreements.

You should refer to you award or agreement to find out how much long service leave you are entitled to.

You can also visit the Fair Work Commission for links to what kind of long service leave provisions apply in your State or Territory.

You can take community leave if you are required to attend jury service, participate in a voluntary emergency management activity, or in other special circumstances.

• Community leave applies to casual and permanent workers.
• A permanent worker who has to attend jury service of up to 10 days, is to be paid at their ordinary base rate of pay for this period.
• After this time the employer may not have to top up the allowance that is paid by the court.

Check to see if your enterprise agreement covers this situation – if it doesn’t and you need to approach your employer for compensation contact us and we can you help negotiate a fair deal.

The following are the national public holidays as defined in the Fair Work legislation:

• 1 January (New Years Day)
• 26 January (Australia Day)
• Good Friday
• Easter Monday
• 25 April (Anzac Day)
• Queen’s Birthday Holiday (on the day on which it is celebrated in your State or  Territory)
• 25 December (Christmas Day)
• 26 December (Boxing Day)

This list is not inclusive of State or Territory holidays that might also apply to you, or that might replace some of the public holidays listed above. These include:

• Labour Day (date differs in each State/Territory)
• Melbourne Cup Day (Vic), Bank Holiday (NSW), Royal Qld Show (Qld), Picnic Day (NT), Adelaide Cup (SA), Foundation Day (WA), Royal Hobart Show (Tas)
• Easter Saturday (Vic, NSW, Qld, NT, SA), Easter Tuesday (Tas)
• Show Day (NT), Royal Hobart Regatta (Tas)

You should have public holidays away from work and your are entitled to be paid at least your ordinary rate of pay for them.

Your employer can request you to work on public holidays, although the request must be reasonable under the circumstances. You should be paid above your ordinary pay rates if you do work on a public holiday.

Casual workers who are not rostered on to work on a public holiday, and part-time workers whose ordinary days do not fall on the public holiday, do not have to be paid for the public holiday, although they should be paid public holiday rates if they work on a public holiday.