The high court last week, handed down a decision regarding how Personal Leave is accrued. This decision came as a result of an earlier decision that was handed down by the Fair Work Commission last year in August 2019.

The decision to how Personal Leave is accrued is also referred to as the Mondelez decision. This means that every employee whether working full time or part-time are entitled to 10 days a year irrespective of the number of hours worked. It also meant that personal leave would accrue in days even if an employee worked longer or shorter hours in the day.

This was considered a payroll nightmare as it exposed businesses to a huge number of underpayment claims. It was unfair to employees who worked full time and was impractical in its application. Hence the decision was appealed in the High Court but was overturned last week. The new personal leave high court ruling is that employees are entitled to 10 ‘notional days’ leave per year.  The duration of a ‘day’ will be determined by identifying the 1/10th of an employee’s ordinary hours over a 2 week period. This equates to 1/26th of their total ordinary hours over the period of a year.

A few examples:

This is a welcome outcome for employers who would have otherwise faced an increase in the personal/carer’s leave owed to employees.

You can read the complete Personal Leave high court ruling here.

Get in touch…

The information contained in this blog is general in nature. If you need some help navigating the rules and obligations around leave entitlements for your business or are unsure about how this information applies to your specific situation we recommend you contact us at VeiraMal Consulting to get started.

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bustats
3 years ago

Interesting read – good to know this sort of stuff