How much annual leave do my employees receive?
Your full-time employees get 4 weeks of paid annual leave for every year that they work for your business. Part-time employees get a pro rata amount of annual leave, which means a proportionate amount based on their hours of work. Casual employees don’t get paid annual leave.
Shiftworkers are entitled to an extra week of annual leave per year. Under the Restaurants Award, a shiftworker is an employee who regularly works on Sundays and public holidays, in a business that has shifts rostered for 24 hours a day for 7 hours per shift.
Find out how annual leave accumulates in the Calculating annual leave section.
Can annual leave be cashed out?
Your employees cannot cash out their annual or personal leave entitlements under the Fast Food Award.
Can annual leave be taken in advance?
You can allow your employees to take all or part of their annual leave in advance before the leave has accrued. If you do this you should keep accurate and detailed records and advise your employees:
- that the leave is owed to the business
- if they leave or their employer discharges them before accruing the amount of leave necessary to repay the business, then the outstanding amount will be deducted from their final pay upon termination of their employment.
How do public holidays affect annual leave?
The entitlement to paid public holidays is separate to annual leave. This means that if a public holiday falls during a period of annual leave your employee is taken not to be on paid annual leave on that public holiday. That is, the employee must be paid for the public holiday separately. This day must not be subtracted from the employee’s annual leave balance.
How does workers’ compensation affect annual leave?
Under the National Employment Standards, an employee is not entitled to accrue or take annual leave when receiving workers’ compensation. However, employees may accrue or take annual leave during such a period if it is allowed under an applicable Commonwealth, state or territory law that is about workers’ compensation. You should contact the relevant workers’ compensation agency in your state or territory for more information.