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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Posts
    18

    Default Excessive Annual Leave Accruals

    Hi All,

    Just started in a new job and have been reviewing the leave liability across the organisation (1,100 employees in WA, NT, Vic & NSW). I was mortified at the amount of people with well over 200 hours of leave accrued with some people northwards of 500. Now here's the issue I'm reviewing one state at a time starting with the largest location of about 800 employees. Over 650 personnel are covered by the Clerks -Private Sector Award 2010 and the Professional Employee Award 2010.

    The clerks award allows the following:

    29.5 Requirement to take leave notwithstanding terms of the NES

    An employer may require an employee to take annual leave by giving at least four weeks’ notice in the following circumstances:

    (a) as part of a close-down of its operations;or

    (b) where more than eight weeks’ leave is accrued.

    But the professional employee award doesn't so the only option we have is to stick with the standard Xmas/New Year Office closure and whatever the standard is in each client office that various employees were in permanently.

    I was wanting to put a plan in place in place for those with in excess of say 300 hours to encourage them to take leave throughout the year. Unfortunately the awards don't cover this or consider an employees wellbeing and need to take breaks throughout the year.

    Oh and those award free employees will be put on a plan to book leave and also offered to option to cash out some of their leave in accordance with the NES where they retain at least 4 weeks of paid annual leave balance. I'm looking at it from an OHS perspective too.

    Just looking for some comments/ feedback from anyone that has had to manage a process like this and how they overcame the award restrictions.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    Sydney NSW
    Posts
    7

    Default

    In the first instance I would work with all the employees Managers/Supervisors to encourage them to meet with all their employees to reduce their annual leave balances. Meetings to be followed up by formal annual leave submissions (leave plans normally recorded in half yearly or yearly 'job action' planning meetings).

    If no annual leave is submitted an informal email could be written to those employee with excessive balances: I refer to our recent conversation about your annual leave balance which is X days as at the last pay date. It is x Company's responsibility to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our employees and this includes informally asking employees to take annual leave to reduce a high annual leave balance.

    There are many benefits of taking regular annual leave to both employees and x Company. The four-weeks-leave per annum system is in place to ensure employees are both happy and healthy. It is our belief that the occasional small break or holiday is essential for your mental wellbeing and provides a good chance reconnect with family and friends.

    I would like you to liaise with me to put an annual leave plan in place to reduce your annual leave balance over the next x (e.g. 6/12) months by at least x days (normally at least 10 days). Within this plan you should account for the x days you will accrue during the next x months.

    Please contact me to discuss this further.

    Regards,

    Supervisor.

    Failing this a more formal approach will be needed as you mentioned.

    Quote Originally Posted by Gyro View Post
    Hi All,

    Just started in a new job and have been reviewing the leave liability across the organisation (1,100 employees in WA, NT, Vic & NSW). I was mortified at the amount of people with well over 200 hours of leave accrued with some people northwards of 500. Now here's the issue I'm reviewing one state at a time starting with the largest location of about 800 employees. Over 650 personnel are covered by the Clerks -Private Sector Award 2010 and the Professional Employee Award 2010.

    The clerks award allows the following:

    29.5 Requirement to take leave notwithstanding terms of the NES

    An employer may require an employee to take annual leave by giving at least four weeks’ notice in the following circumstances:

    (a) as part of a close-down of its operations;or

    (b) where more than eight weeks’ leave is accrued.

    But the professional employee award doesn't so the only option we have is to stick with the standard Xmas/New Year Office closure and whatever the standard is in each client office that various employees were in permanently.

    I was wanting to put a plan in place in place for those with in excess of say 300 hours to encourage them to take leave throughout the year. Unfortunately the awards don't cover this or consider an employees wellbeing and need to take breaks throughout the year.

    Oh and those award free employees will be put on a plan to book leave and also offered to option to cash out some of their leave in accordance with the NES where they retain at least 4 weeks of paid annual leave balance. I'm looking at it from an OHS perspective too.

    Just looking for some comments/ feedback from anyone that has had to manage a process like this and how they overcame the award restrictions.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Posts
    18

    Default

    Hey There

    Thanks so much for the feedback it has been very helpful :-)

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Posts
    196

    Default

    Fair Work Australia has recently voted to make some changes re Annual Leave in awards - so check that out. Essentially however, if you have employees with Excessive leave balances (under Fair Work, that is considered to be 8 weeks), you do have the right to order them to take it by giving one month's notice... that would, of course, be after you'd tried the softly softly approaching as suggested by Carrie. The problem with A/L you accrue a week each quarter so it accrues very quickly and so if not careful, employees with already high balances could end up with more weeks if you don't act quickly.
    Further, I recommend you implement a Leave Management Plan with all your line managers making them responsible for managing the leave of their direct reports ensuring they take leave each year - a simple spreadsheet or notice board would do the trick - that way there is rotation of the peak popular times like Easter and Xmas through the teams plus, importantly, puts onus on line managers to manager their output more efficiently by knowing in advance when employees will be on leave.
    Plus your company needs to have a Leave Policy in place which would cover all leave types and your company rules around the taking of it, medical evidence requirements/call ins (for PC/L) etc. For Annual Leave, you might want to consider mandatory blocks of one and two weeks each employee anniversary year - this is now popular in a growing number of organizations, particular those in finance related businesses where it is necessary to audit employees' work dealings. LSL is another which costs companies big time when people don't take it when it falls due - you need to stay on top of that one too.
    Tiger

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Posts
    18

    Default

    One more question on this one. If an employee that is covered by an Award that doesn't stipulate you can have a forced period of shutdown over Xmas or the like and they refuse to take leave in that period how would you address/ deal with this?

    I am looking at opportunities for people to move over to other accounts during this period as an option as the client sites will be physically shutdown during this period apart from staff on the 24/7 roster in a specialized area.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2015
    Location
    Sydney NSW
    Posts
    7

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Gyro View Post
    One more question on this one. If an employee that is covered by an Award that doesn't stipulate you can have a forced period of shutdown over Xmas or the like and they refuse to take leave in that period how would you address/ deal with this?

    I am looking at opportunities for people to move over to other accounts during this period as an option as the client sites will be physically shutdown during this period apart from staff on the 24/7 roster in a specialized area.
    The Fair Work Act (s88) states that paid annual leave may be taken for a period agreed between an employee and his or her employer. This means the employer must obtain the agreement of each affected employee for a close-down to occur. An example of a modern award that does not have an annual close-down provision is the Legal Services Award 2010.

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