Annual leave loading is an additional payment employees receive when taking paid annual leave.
When your cleaning employees take annual leave, you must pay them 17.5% annual leave loading calculated on their ordinary time rate of pay (defined below).
Where your cleaning employee would have received a rate of pay, or shift, weekend (Saturday or Sunday), or public holiday penalty rate from Schedule A or Schedule B of the Cleaning Award, if they worked during the relevant period, you must pay them the higher of:
- the rate provided in Schedule A or Schedule B, or
- the minimum wage rates as set out in clause 16 of the Cleaning Award, plus 17.5%.
Definition of ordinary time rate of pay: Pay for the employee’s normal weekly number of hours of work calculated at the ordinary hourly rate, including:
(a) leading hand allowance
(b) first aid allowance
(c) penalty rates paid for shiftwork or rostered ordinary hours of work on Saturday and/or Sunday, and
(d) part-time allowance for part-time employees working shiftwork (Monday to Friday) or rostered ordinary hours on a Saturday and/or Sunday.
If an employee usually works a permanent night shift and receives more than 17.5% loading on all hours worked, they are entitled to receive that loading instead of the 17.5% annual leave loading.