Leave Entitlements in the SCHADS Award UNPACKED
Introduction
This video explains the different types of employee leave entitlements under the National Employment Standards and the SCHADS Award. It covers annual leave, personal and carers leave, compassionate leave, community service leave, and long service leave, detailing how each type works and what employers need to do to remain compliant. The video also explains leave loading, casual employee entitlements, and how unused leave is handled on termination. It is part of the SCHADS online course and provides guidance for businesses to correctly calculate and pay leave while meeting legal obligations. This helps both employers and payroll staff understand leave requirements and obligations.
Key Takeaways
- Full-time employees are entitled to at least four weeks of paid annual leave, with shift workers and part-time employees having specific entitlements.
- Employees may receive leave loading on top of their normal pay under the SCHADS Award to cover additional expenses.
- Personal and carers leave allows employees to take time off for illness or caring responsibilities, with casual employees eligible for unpaid leave.
- Compassionate leave is available when an immediate family or household member dies or suffers a life-threatening illness or injury.
- Community service leave covers voluntary emergency work and jury duty, usually unpaid except for makeup pay during jury service.
- Long service leave provides paid time off for long-term employees, with entitlements varying by state or territory law.
Transcript
Introduction to Leave Obligations
Another major part of a business's obligations—so here's what you need to know. The National Employment Standards, which we've done another video on, dictate the minimum leave entitlements for employees. These include annual leave, personal and carers leave such as sick leave, compassionate leave, community service leave, and long service leave. In Part Six of our SCHADS online course, we go through each of these and unpack exactly what you need to know, how to interpret it, and what you should be paying your employees so that you're remaining compliant and avoiding the wrath of Fair Work.
Also, make sure you check out our playlist containing the rest of this course. I've left a link in the description box below. If you work in a business under the SCHADS Award and you need to include this as part of your CPD or need a certificate, we have a paid version of the course that will also issue you with that certificate when you complete it. It also includes bonus tools like our SCHADS compliance checklist to help you with processing payroll, and we keep the course 100% updated as changes come through with the SCHADS Award. I've also left links to access it below.
Let's get started.
Annual Leave
Okay, so let's start with annual leave. Every full-time employee in Australia is entitled to at least four weeks of paid annual leave per year they've worked, with part-time employees entitled to prorated paid leave, so it'll be calculated based on the number of hours they work. Shift workers are entitled to five weeks of paid annual leave if they are available seven days a week and regularly rostered to work on Sundays and public holidays.
Take note: employees who perform at least eight 24-hour care shifts during the year will now be considered shift workers for the purposes of the National Employment Standards and are entitled to one extra week of annual leave under the NES. Employees are entitled to be paid at their normal pay rate during their leave period, but some employees also get an extra loading percentage on top of their weekly wage depending on their award, agreement, or employer. This additional payment is known as leave loading.
Annual leave loading helps compensate employees for expenses during annual leave. Under the SCHADS Award, leave loading is usually an extra 17.5% on top of the employee's normal wage for the time period taken off, or weekend and shift penalties the employee would have received if they weren't on leave during that period.
If that ends up being more—for example, if a full-time employee applies for leave between Thursday this week and Wednesday next week and would typically work eight hours of shift work on a Saturday—the employer must calculate 38 hours, include 17.5% leave loading, and compare it with how much the employee would typically receive if they had been paid for working across that period with the Saturday penalty rates. Whichever of the two calculations is higher is how much the employee should be paid across that period of time, not for individual days. The idea is that the employee is protected from being paid less for paid annual leave.
It's important to note that if you or your employee terminates the work agreement and they have leave days left over, you must include all unused annual leave as part of their final pay.
Personal and Carers Leave
The next type of leave your employee is entitled to is personal and carers leave. It's also sometimes called sick and carers leave. This type of leave lets employees take time off to help them deal with personal illness, caring responsibilities, and family emergencies. Before carers leave can be approved, you'll need to make sure that they're taking the time to care for a member of their immediate family or household. The NES sets out who is considered immediate family, and you can find the link in the description box below.
Your employees, except casual employees, are entitled to take 10 paid leave days for each year they have worked for your company. If one of your staff members takes off more personal or carers leave days than what they have built up, then the leave will be unpaid. Casual employees are not entitled to paid personal leave entitlements, but they are still entitled to take two days of unpaid personal or carers leave.
Compassionate Leave
You also get compassionate leave, which is a different type of entitlement to personal or carers leave. If a member of an employee's immediate family or household dies or contracts a life-threatening illness or injury, an employee should be allowed to take compassionate leave. Full-time and part-time employees can get paid compassionate leave, but casual employees can only apply for unpaid compassionate leave. An employee will usually get two days per occasion that an employee's immediate family or household member dies or suffers a life-threatening illness or injury.
Community Service Leave
Next up, we have community service leave. All employees are entitled to be absent from work to undertake voluntary community emergency activities or jury service. There is no set limit on how much leave you can take, but it's generally unpaid unless it's jury duty. If the leave is for jury duty, employees usually get makeup pay for up to the first 10 days they miss work because of jury service. Makeup pay is the difference between your ordinary pay and what you are paid for jury service.
Long Service Leave
Lastly, let's talk about long service leave. Long service leave is a period of paid leave for employees who have been working with the same employer for a long period of time. Long service leave is generally paid at an employee's ordinary pay rate, but it depends on your state or territory laws. For example, in New South Wales, if you have been working for the same employer for 10 years, you are allowed up to two months of paid leave at your ordinary weekly wage. In Victoria, you get one week for every 60 weeks of continuous employment, and you qualify to take your leave after seven years.
Conclusion
So there you have it, guys—when your employee can take leave and your obligations in terms of payroll when they do take leave. See you in the next module.