NSW Edition
The
Issue 68 • June 2016
CUTTING EDGE
HR & IR Information
What is Compassionate Leave and what are my obligations?
Compassionate Leave (also known as bereavement leave)
should not be confused with an employee’s entitlement to
Personal/Carer’s Leave (previously known as sick leave).
Compassionate Leave is when an employee (including a
casual employee, but unpaid for the casual employee) is
entitled to two days leave to spend time with a member of
their immediate family or member of their household who
has sustained a life-threatening illness or injury and/or
when they die.
Immediate family member includes an employee’s:
• Spouse
• Defacto partner
• Child
• Parent
• Grandparent
• Grandchild
• Sibling
The above also applies to such persons on both sides of
the family.
It will only apply to others if they are a member of the
employee’s household, or if the employer otherwise agrees.
Compassionate leave may also be taken after the death of a
member of the employee’s immediate family or household.
This means that there are two permissible occasions where
an employee can be eligible for compassionate leave for the
same immediate family member or household member.
An employee may take compassionate leave for each
occasion as:
• a single continuous two day period or
• two separate periods of one day each or
• any separate periods to which the employee and his or
her employer agree.
The paid compassionate leave provisions under the NES defines
‘permissible occasion’ to include time spent with a member
of the employee’s immediate family who has contracted or
developed a personal illness or sustained a personal injury.
In this instance, the employee may take paid compassionate
leave for that occasion at any time while the illness or
injury persists.
Subject to notice and evidence requirements, the employee
could take two days of paid compassionate leave for the visit in
September and a further two days after the death of her mother.
It is not a prerequisite the employee attends the funeral to
qualify for paid compassionate leave.
What to pay?
Where an employee is entitled to take compassionate leave
(other than a casual employee) their employer must pay the
employee at the employee’s base rate of pay for the ordinary
hours they would have worked during the period. Casuals are
entitled to unpaid carer’s leave or compassionate leave.
Notification and evidence requirements
The employee must give his or her employer notice of
the taking of such leave. The notice must be given to the
employer as soon as practicable (which may be a time after
the leave has started), and must advise the employer of the
period, or expected period, of the leave.
An employer is entitled to request evidence such as a
medical certificate relating the immediate family member
or member of the household that would substantiate the
reason for leave. A failure to either provide notice or, if
required, evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person to
substantiate the reasons for the leave, means the employee
is not entitled to the leave.
Thank you to our National Sponsors
2nd Floor 460 Pacific Highway St Leonards NSW 2065 • Telephone 02 9086 2200 • Facsimile 02 9086 2201 • Web www.amic.org.au
Annual Leave – how does it accrue?
AMIC regularly receives enquiries about annual leave
and how it is paid, but also, members ask us how does it
accrue for an employee.
Annual leave accrues according to an employee’s ordinary
hours of work, which are set out in the Meat Industry
Award 2010 or maybe in an establishment’s enterprise
agreement, and are calculated in the manner set out in
the Fair Work Act 2009. This means a full-time employee
will accrue the equivalent of four weeks’ annual leave over
the course of a year of service.
A part-time employee whose ordinary hours of work each
week are less than 38 hours will accrue annual leave on a
proportionate basis relative to their ordinary weekly hours
. For example, a full-time employee who works 38 hours a
week over five days (Monday to Friday) will accrue the same
amount of annual leave as a full-time employee who works
38 hours per week over four days per week, i.e. four weeks’
annual leave after 12 months period of service.
A part-time employee who works 19 hours per week will
accrue half the amount of annual leave accrued by a fulltime employee over a year of service (76 hours), reflecting
the lower number of hours worked. In taking one week’s
annual leave, this part-time employee will be entitled to
be paid for 19 hours, at the base rate of pay (unless a more
beneficial definition of ordinary pay is prescribed in the
award or enterprise agreement).
leave, etc. – count as part of an employee’s service for the
purposes of calculating annual leave.
However, an employee does not accrue annual leave during
the following periods of absence:
• any period of unpaid leave or authorised unpaid
absence (except community service leave or a period
of stand down)
• any period of unauthorised absence, such as strike action.
Examples of unpaid leave include parental leave and
unpaid carer’s leave, while leave without pay is an example
of a period of authorised unpaid absence. An employee
receiving payment under the federal government-funded
paid parental leave scheme does not accrue annual leave
during such paid parental leave.
Although an employee does not accrue annual leave during
such absences, they do not break the employee’s continuity
of service with the employer, meaning service with the
employer prior to taking the unpaid leave or authorised
unpaid absence is maintained.
If you are unsure about an employer’s rights and
obligations then you should contact the AMIC.
Welcome to New Members
•
Goldbank Foods, Kerry Harris, Chisholm
•
Wollondilly Quality Meats Tahmoor P/L, Brett Payer, Tahmoor
•
Parkes Central Butchery, Paul Byrne, Parkes
•
Beca P/L, Peter Young, Sydney
•
Robanco Meats P/L, Robert & Marlene Perkins, Blayney
•
Martin Timms Farmgate Fresh Cut Meats P/L, Michael
Hearne, Bathurst
When an employee can be entitled to five week’s
annual leave: To qualify for an additional week’s annual
leave, a shift worker must work on a continuous shift
roster and be regularly required to work Sundays and
public holidays. Both situations must exist – the shift
roster on which the employee is employed must be a 24hour /7-day per week shift roster, and the employee works
rotating shifts on the roster, meaning the employee is
regularly required to work Sundays and public holidays.
•
Chrissy’s Cuts Sausages, Chrissy Flanagan, Newtown
•
Helensburgh Butchery, Jason Rooke, Helensburgh
•
Crown State Meat Company P/L, Jon Choi, Binnaway
•
East Blaxland Butchery, Scott Evans, Blaxland East
•
Southern Gourmet Meats, Andrew Szeles, Kareela
•
JK Quality Meats P/L, John Kent, Dubbo
•
Barmedman Beef, Daniel Mehegan, Wagga Wagga
Service
•
The Butchers Market, Michael & Shelley Bellamy,
Harrington Park
•
Nicholson & Saville P/L, Derek Nicholson, Caringbah
•
South Nowra Meats, Kory Edwards, South Nowra
•
Chop Artisan Butchery, David Funnell, Baulkham Hills
Non-standard hours: If an employee works ‘non-standard
hours’, for example, 40 hours per week or four 12-hour
shifts per week, annual leave does not accrue based on
these total additional hours, but on the standard 38 hours
per week. This avoids a situation where an employee
would accrue additional annual leave based on these
additional hours (overtime hours). The accrual of annual leave is based on an employee’s
‘service’ with an employer. Certain absences from work are
excluded when calculating an employee’s accrual of annual
leave. All absences on paid leave – for example, annual
leave, personal/carer’s leave, public holidays, long service
2 NSW