Commonwealth Repealed Acts

This legislation has been repealed.

WORKPLACE RELATIONS ACT 1996 - SECT 236

General rules

             (1)  Subject to this section and section 233, an employee is entitled to take an amount of annual leave during a particular period if:

                     (a)  at least that amount of annual leave is credited to the employee; and

                     (b)  the employee's employer has authorised the employee to take the annual leave during that period.

             (2)  To avoid doubt, there is no maximum or minimum limit on the amount of annual leave that an employer may authorise an employee to take.

             (3)  Any authorisation given by an employer enabling an employee to take annual leave during a particular period is subject to the operational requirements of the workplace or enterprise in respect of which the employee is employed.

             (4)  An employer must not unreasonably:

                     (a)  refuse to authorise an employee to take an amount of annual leave that is credited to the employee; or

                     (b)  revoke an authorisation enabling an employee to take annual leave during a particular period.

Shut downs

             (5)  An employee must take an amount of annual leave during a particular period if:

                     (a)  the employee is directed to do so by the employee's employer because, during that period, the employer shuts down the business, or any part of the business, in which the employee works; and

                     (b)  at least that amount of annual leave is credited to the employee.

Extensive accumulated annual leave

             (6)  An employee must take an amount of annual leave during a particular period if:

                     (a)  the employee is directed to do so by his or her employer; and

                     (b)  at the time that the direction is given, the employee has annual leave credited to him or her of more than 1 / 13 of the number of nominal hours worked by the employee for the employer during the period of 104 weeks ending at the time that the direction is given; and

                     (c)  the amount of annual leave that the employee is directed to take is less than, or equal to, 1 / 4 of the amount of credited annual leave of the employee at the time that the direction is given.

Entitlement to leave for all nominal hours in a day also extends to other hours on that day

             (7)  If:

                     (a)  an employee to whom subparagraph 229(1)(a)(ii) applies is entitled to take annual leave on a particular day; and

                     (b)  the entitlement covers all the hours (or part hours) on that day that would count towards the nominal hours worked by the employee in the week that includes that day;

the employer is taken to have authorised the employee to be absent from work for any other hours (or part hours) on that day that the employee would otherwise have worked.

Example:    Bianca is employed by BBB Bakers Pty Ltd. She works 40 hours per week (consisting of 38 hours plus 2 reasonable additional hours).

                   Under subsection 232(2), Bianca is entitled to accrue paid annual leave of 1/13 of her nominal hours worked for each completed 4 week period of continuous service with BBB Bakers. Because of subparagraph 229(1)(a)(ii), Bianca's nominal hours worked in a week are capped at 38 hours. If Bianca works her normal hours for a 12 month period, she will accrue 152 hours of paid annual leave.

                   The above subsection ensures that Bianca will be able to be absent from work for 4 full 40 hour weeks. Bianca's absence for the additional 8 hours will not be paid leave, and will not count as service, but it will not break her continuity of service (see subsection (8)).

             (8)  An absence that is taken by subsection (7) to have been authorised:

                     (a)  is not annual leave; and

                     (b)  does not break the employee's continuity of service; and

                     (c)  does not otherwise count as service.

             (9)  For the purposes of subsection (7), if a shift (or other period of work) occurs partly on 1 day and partly on the next day, the shift (or other period of work) is taken to be a day and the remaining parts of the days are taken not to be part of the day.

           (10)  For the purposes of subsection (7), the regulations may make provision for either or both of the following:

                     (a)  determining what hours (or part hours) on a particular day would count towards the nominal hours worked by an employee in a week;

                     (b)  determining what other hours (or part hours) on a particular day would be hours (or part hours) that an employee would otherwise have worked.