Backdate AL entitlements?

[RebeccaS]

Hi

Has anyone ever heard of a company backdating AL entitlements for labour hire staff who are becoming permanent employees?

We have a few employees who have been with the company for 6mths+ as labour hire. They were told when they first started, that after 45 days with the company they would be made permanent employees. This did not happen due to issues within the company at the time. Now, 6+ months later, we are offering them permanent positions but they are asking to have AL entitlements backdated so that they started to accrue at the end of the 45 days from their initial appointment. Is this a common practice? Has anyone heard of this before?

Thanks for your help!

[HRbeat]

HI RebeccaS,

I have never heard of backdating annual leave entitlements before. From a remuneration and benefits perspective, they are not entitled to backdating annual leave either. The wages they receive has a casual loading due to the fact that they are not accruing any entitlements that are attributed to permanent employees e.g. annual leave, paid sick leave, etc. This means they are paid above normal rates to "compensate" for lack of available entitlements, and the nature of a labour hire arrangement, being casual.

You may also want to check the relevant industrial instrument applying to this scenario i.e. Modern Award or Enterprise Agreement, or common law contracts

[Moz]

Rebecca, I guess it may hinge on how they were "told" they would become permanent after 45 days, and by whom. If this is in writing or guaranteed verbally you could have a problem.

However, as HRBeat says, their payment rate should have included a loading to compensate for no entitlement to annual leave. I suggest you should check that their pay rate did in fact include this loading (approx 25% is normal) before relying on this argument.

[Cottoneyes]

Hi Rebecca S,

Only times I've ever heard of it being backdated is whn there has been a court ruling or the like that the employee was not actually employed as a casual, but rather as a permament employee either part time or full time due to the regular hours they were required to work. Usually this required longer periods of employment with 6 months being on the very lower limit. It's not a common practice though.