Full-time employees accrue 10 days of paid personal leave per year and part-time employees accrue the pro-rata equivalent.
The High Court decision in ¹Mondelez Australia Pty Ltd v AMWU & Ors [2020] HCA 29 clarified that the entitlement to 10 days of personal leave:
- is accrued based on the employee’s ordinary hours of work, not working days; and
- is calculated as 1/26 of an employee’s ordinary hours of work per year.
On this basis, full-time employees working 38 ordinary hours per week would accrue 76 hours of personal leave each year. Part-time employees working, for example, 25 hours per week would accrue 50 hours of personal leave each year.
Personal leave begins accumulating from the employee’s first day of work and is based on their ordinary hours of work in accordance with the National Employment Standards.
If you haven’t used all of your personal leave it continues to accrue from year to year.
Your employment contract may allow for more personal leave, but it cannot allow for less personal leave than currently provided for in:
- the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth); or
- your Award or enterprise agreement or other industrial instrument,
whichever is the greater entitlement.
If you have questions about your personal leave accrual, please contact Morgan Couzens Legal on (03)57224681.
MORGAN COUZENS LEGAL
¹https://www.hcourt.gov.au/cases/case_m160-2019
