Post Giving 4 weeks notice and Annual Leave...

[louisgirl]

Hi all

Hoping someone out there can help me with my situation...

Does approved annual leave count towards a four weeks notice period if it happens to fall within that period??

Say for example, I have 1 weeks annual leave booked in 3 weeks time but I want to give my 4 weeks notice now. Will my 1 week annual leave still count towards my 4 weeks notice? Or can my employer make me continue employment for the entire 4 weeks....?

Thanks for any help
-louisgirl-

[Moz]

In my opinion, the annual leave is part of the four weeks notice.

If the leave was already booked and approved by the employer then they cannot reasonably cancel the leave (and effectively force you to 'cash out' the leave). If on the other hand you gave notice before you applied for the leave, they could probably find grounds to reasonably reject the leave application.

Needless to say, any remaining accrued annual leave must be paid out by the employer when you leave (which is the last day of the four week notice period, regardless of whether the last week is taken as annual leave).

That said, my speciality is recruitment, so it might be worth waiting for one or two more opinions from other HR people

http://www.fairwork.gov.au/factsheet...nd-the-NES.pdf

[Cottoneyes]

I concur with Moz, this has been my experience in each company I've worked for. I've seen some leave get reversed on very rare occasions where the leave is applied for and approved 5 minutes before the resignation is submitted, however that is very rare. I assume your leave was approved along time before the notice was given though.

[Qld IR Consultant]

Moz is correct. As long as you had the leave booked prior they will have a hard time reversing it and going down the dark path of confrontation. Smart employer will just chalk it up to "well they weren't going to be here anyway"....

[SA IR Consultant]

Annual leae once approved is considdered service with the employer, so even though an emp[loyee is on annual leave, they are on approved leave that continues to count as service with the empoyer, and as such, can contribute towards the relevant notice period under the modern award.

So, you cannot withhold a period of notice if notice is given by the employee (in writing) in the period of employment, in this case, before annual leave is taken or even while on annual leave if there is sufficient notice applicable.

[HeyPete]

SA IR Consultant is correct.

1. An employee cannot be restrained from taking annual leave during their notice period.

2. An employee's pre-booked annual leave cannot lawfully be withdrawn during the notice period, unless there are genuine operational reasons that require the employee to work.

3. An employer cannot extend the contractual notice period, unless mutually agreed to.

4. The mere fact that an employees annual leave falls inside their notice period still does not give the employer a right to extend the contractual notice period by a period of time equal to the annual leave.


This happens quite often within the management line becuase they don't check with HR !!

[nattalies]

This is consistent with some advice I gave recently, my only question to what is here is as follows:

if the employee is requesting annual leave at the same time as offering their resignation could the employer not refuse the annual leave request if there was a reasonable operational need (eg. handover or completion of project?)

Cheers!

[HeyPete]

Hi nattalies

I think you just answered your own question there.

The employer must not unreasonably refuse to agree to a request by the employee to take paid annual leave... and it could be argued that handover / completion of project is a reasonable reason to refuse annual leave.