Direction to take excess annual leave

Understand when employers can direct employees to take paid annual leave if they have a lot of annual leave.

On this page:

What's excess annual leave

Excess annual leaveAnnual leave allows an employee to be paid while having time off from work. Other known term: holiday pay. is typically when an employee has accrued more than 8 weeks of paid leave. For shiftworkersAn employee who works fixed hours of work (eg. shifts or rosters) that are outside or partly outside of normal working hours (eg. 9am – 5pm). Awards and registered agreements often provide a specific definition of shiftworker. , this is typically 10 weeks.

Under some enterprise agreementsAn enterprise agreement sets out minimum employment conditions and can apply to one business or a group of businesses. , employers can direct employees to take paid annual leave if they have a lot of annual leave.

Direction to excess annual leave under an award

Under most awards, employees can be directed to take annual leave if they have at least 8 weeks accrued (10 weeks for a shiftworkerAn employee who works fixed hours of work (eg. shifts or rosters) that are outside or partly outside of normal working hours (eg. 9am – 5pm). Awards and registered agreements often provide a specific definition of shiftworker. ). This only applies if they haven't been able to agree with their employer about when to take the leave.

The employer has to:

  • tell the employee in writing that they need to take annual leave, and
  • give the employee at least 8 weeks’ notice (and not more than 12 months) of when the leave will start.

The leave has to be at least one week long and generally can’t result in the employee having less than 6 weeks accrued leave.

Tip: Make sure you check your award

It’s important to check your award as excess annual leave rules can differ between awards.

For a copy of your award, go to our List of awards page.

If you’re still not sure which award applies, search by occupation or industry in our Pay and Conditions Tool. You can also use this tool to calculate minimum wages and some entitlements.

Employers wanting to direct an employee to take excess leave can use our free template: Direction to take excessive annual leave template repeat title of the document.

The template has easy-to-follow instructions and a sample letter for employers to use.

Example: Employee directed to take excess annual leave

Simone has worked as a full-time employee in a distribution centre for over 10 years. She is a dayworker and is covered by the Storage and Wholesale Award.

Simone has 12 weeks of annual leave accrued. This means she has excessive annual leave accrued under her award because her leave balance is more than 8 weeks.

Simone’s employer, Oscar, organises a meeting with her to discuss reducing her excess annual leave balance. Oscar and Simone haven’t been able to reach an agreement.

Oscar checks the Storage and Wholesale Award. He learns that he can direct Simone to take annual leave in writing if an agreement can't be reached about reducing the excess leave. The direction can't result in Simone's annual leave balance being less than 6 weeks.

Oscar also needs to make sure the direction to take annual leave:

  • is given in writing
  • is for a period of leave that is longer than one week, and
  • gives Simone at least 8 weeks' notice of the leave starting.

Oscar decides to give Simone a direction to take 3 weeks of annual leave in 3 months time. He uses our Notice of requirement to take annual leave interactive template  to create the letter directing Simone to take annual leave.

Direction to take excess annual leave under an agreement

If you’re covered by an enterprise agreement, check it for information about when an employee can be directed to take excess annual leave. For help finding if an enterprise agreement applies, go to our Finding an agreement page.

If an enterprise agreement says an employee can be directed to take excess annual leave, but doesn’t set out specific rules about this, then the direction must be reasonable.

Direction to take excess annual leave for award and agreement free employees

An employer can require an employee who isn’t covered by an award or enterprise agreement to take paid annual leave if the requirement is reasonable. This can include when the employee’s leave balance is excessive.

Source reference for page: Fair Work Act 2009 section 93 – 94

Tools and resources

Related information

Have a workplace problem?

Problems can happen in any workplace. If you have a workplace problem, we have tools and information to help you resolve it.

Check out our Fixing a workplace problem section for practical information about:

  • working out if there is a problem
  • speaking with your employer or employee about fixing the problem
  • getting help from us if you can't fix the problem.

Help for small business