Based on what you've told us, it looks like you're covered by the Children's Services Award 2010 [MA000120].
Employees can be directed to take annual leave during a shut down over Christmas.
If an employee doesn't have enough leave to cover this shut down, they will have to:
- take all of their accrued paid leave
- take unpaid leave for a maximum of 4 weeks or
- agree with their employer to take annual leave either wholly or partly in advance.
Non-Christmas shut down
Employees can also be directed to take annual leave during a shut down when a business is open for more than 48 weeks in a year. They have to be given at least 4 weeks notice before the leave needs to be taken.
If an employee doesn't have enough annual leave to cover the shutdown, they can agree with the employer to take:
- annual leave in advance or
- unpaid leave.
If an employee doesn't agree to either and there is no work available, they have to be paid their ordinary pay rate for the shut down. They can't be forced to take unpaid leave.
Use the Notice of requirement to take annual leave for close down letter template (DOC 62KB) when directing employees to take annual leave during a shut down.
Accumulating annual leave during a shut down
An employee will continue to accumulate annual leave while on paid leave during a shut down period.
To find out more about who this award applies to, go to the Children's Services Award summary.
Source reference: Children’s Services Award 2010 [MA000120] clause 24.4
