The HR/IR Solutions Guide for Small and Medium Businesses in Wollongong: Understanding Annual Leave
All employees (other than casuals) are entitled to annual leave benefits. This means that all businesses in the Wollongong and the Illawarra must have annual leave policies in place to protect themselves.
Annual leave is guaranteed to all employees through the National Employment Standards (NES) as an essential part of working life. The NES guarantees all workers four weeks of paid annual leave from work each year. This is the minimum, but employers must be aware that this number can be changed.
The amount of annual leave which employees are entitled to can be changed by the modern award. The modern award dictates the rights and responsibilities of both employers and employees across a range of fields. If the modern award which your employees fall under specifies more annual leave than the NES, they are entitled to that amount of annual leave.
For Example, some employees who work in remote or very hot locations get more annual leave than other employees.
Annual leave is accrued not at any specific point but will build up over time as an employee works for you. If an employee works for one week, they will accrue about 2.9 hours of annual leave over that working week.
All small and medium businesses in Wollongong and the Illawarra should have a leave policy in place in order for you to run your business effectively. For example, if you have clients which have regular appointments with your employee, you will want to know that your employee will not be taking annual leave before you have time to find a replacement for that appointment. A correctly drafted leave policy would ensure that your employees can only take their annual leave with sufficient notice.
We are often asked whether an employee go into negative annual leave. We usually say NO. If the employee is away from work and claims annual leave but has no accrued leave then the employee should not be paid for the day taken when no annual leave is accrued.
