Please refer to your individual employment contract to confirm your specific entitlements, however the standard for a full-time permanent employee is currently as follows as per the NES (National Employment Standards)
Please refer to your individual employment contract as to whether you are entitled to TOIL – time owed in lieu.
TOIL is only applicable if you are a permanent worker paid under the exemption rate as per the BG Brisbane Collective Agreement.
A full-time employee will accrue 20 days of annual leave over a 12 month period.
Annual leave accumulates from the first day of employment, even if an employee is in a probation period. The leave accumulates gradually during the year and any unused annual leave will roll over from year to year.
Annual leave accumulates when an employee is on:
Annual leave doesn’t accumulate when the employee is on:
An employee needs to request to take annual leave before going on leave. Request forms are available from admin or HR. Or a copy can be downloaded here:-
There’s no minimum or maximum amount of annual leave that can be taken at a time. Provided the employer and employee agree, an employee can take a:
Employees don’t need to take all their annual leave at once.
Employees can cash out annual leave under the Collective Agreement.
Certain rules apply when cashing out annual leave:
Request forms are available from admin / HR or a copy can be downloaded here:-
Employees can take compassionate leave if:
An employee’s immediate family includes their:
Immediate family also includes:
Employees can take compassionate leave for other relatives (for example, cousins, aunts and uncles) if they are a member of the employee’s household or if their employer agrees.
Employees are entitled to 2 days compassionate leave each time they meet the criteria.
Employees can take compassionate leave as:
Employees don’t accumulate compassionate leave and it’s not a part of their sick and carer’s leave entitlement. Employees can take compassionate leave any time they need it.
If an employee is already on another type of leave (for example, annual leave) and needs to take compassionate leave, they can use compassionate leave instead of the other leave.
Full-time and part-time employees receive paid compassionate leave. They’re paid at their base pay rate for the ordinary hours they would have worked during the leave.
Casual employees receive unpaid compassionate leave.
Compassionate leave can’t be cashed out.
An employee taking compassionate leave has to give their employer notice as soon as they can (this may be after the leave has started). The employee has to tell the employer how much leave they are taking, or expect to take, and when.
An employer can request evidence about the reason for compassionate leave (for example, a death or funeral notice or statutory declaration). This request for evidence has to be reasonable. If the employee doesn’t provide the requested notice or evidence they may not get compassionate leave.
Personal / Carer’s leave also known as “sick leave’.
The leave is 10 days for full-time employees, and pro-rata for part-time employees this is accrued over a 12 month period. It starts accumulating from an employee’s first day of work and is based on their ordinary hours of work. The balance at the end of each year carries over to the next year.
Sick and carer’s leave accumulates when an employee is on:
Sick and carer’s leave doesn’t accumulate when the employee is on:
Sick leave can be used when an employee is ill or injured.
An employee may have to take time off to care for an immediate family or household member who is sick or injured or help during a family emergency. This is known as carer’s leave but it comes out of the employee’s personal leave balance.
An employee can take as much paid sick or carer’s leave as they have accumulated. There is no minimum or maximum amount of paid sick or carer’s leave that can be taken at a time.
Employees (including casuals) get 2 days unpaid carer’s leave each time an immediate family member or household member of the employee needs care and support because of:
Full-time and part-time employees can only get unpaid carer’s leave if they don’t have any paid sick / carer’s leave left.
Unpaid carer’s leave can be taken:
Sometimes employees can’t work for longer periods of time because of an illness or injury. There are protections for employees when this happens.
Employees who are absent from work because they’re sick or injured may be protected from being dismissed.
Employees who can provide evidence of their illness or injury are protected from being dismissed because of their absence if they’re:
An employee is no longer protected from being dismissed because of their absence (even if they provide evidence) if:
Employees who use paid sick leave the whole time can’t be dismissed by their employer because of their absence, regardless of how long they’re on leave.
Employees can get parental leave when a child is born or adopted.
Parental leave entitlements include:
Parental leave is leave that can be taken after:
Employees are entitled to up to 12 months of unpaid parental leave. They can also request up to an additional 12 months of leave.
Employees who are taking parental leave to care for an adopted child are also entitled to 2 days unpaid pre-adoption leave to attend relevant interviews or examinations.
This leave can’t be used if an employer tells an employee to take another type of leave (for example, paid annual leave).
All employees in Australia are entitled to parental leave.
Employees are able to take parental leave if they:
For casual employees to be eligible for unpaid parental leave they need to have:
Employees who have taken parental leave don’t have to work for another 12 months before they can take another period of parental leave with that same employer.
BGB does not have a paid parental scheme, however eligible employees who are the primary carer of a newborn or newly adopted child get up to 18 weeks’ PLP through the Australian Government, which is paid at the National Minimum Wage.
In most cases, the Australian Government makes PLP payments to the employer, who then pays the employee.
Employees can use PLP before, after or at the same time as their paid and unpaid entitlements such as annual leave, long service leave and unpaid parental leave.
For information about eligibility, making a claim and sorting out payments, go to Services Australia – Parental Leave Pay 
.
Eligible working dads and partners (including same-sex partners) get 2 weeks leave paid at the National Minimum Wage. These payments are made directly to the employee by the Australian Government.
Visit Services Australia – Dad and Partner Pay for information about eligibility and making a claim for Dad and Partner Pay.
Employees who want to take unpaid parental leave need to give their employer notice that they are taking leave and confirm the dates.
If an employee can’t give the appropriate notice (for example, the baby is born prematurely), they will still be entitled to take the leave as long as they provide notice as soon as possible.
An employee has to give notice to their employer at least 10 weeks before starting their unpaid parental leave. This notice needs to be in writing, and say how much leave they want to take, including the starting and finishing dates.
If an employee can’t give 10 weeks’ notice, they need to provide as much notice as possible.
An employee has to confirm their parental leave dates with their employer at least 4 weeks before they are due to start their leave. If there have been any changes to the dates the employee should tell their employer as soon as possible.
If an employee can’t provide 4 weeks’ notice, they need to provide as much notice as possible.
Employees who are taking pre-adoption leave have to give their employer notice that they are taking leave as soon as possible (this can be after the leave has started). They should also tell their employer how long they expect to be on leave.
Employers can ask employees for evidence of the expected date of birth or of the date of placement of an adopted child, for example a medical certificate or statutory declaration.
An employer can specifically ask for a medical certificate from their employee giving the expected date of birth. Employers can also ask for evidence to support pre-adoption leave.
If an employee doesn’t provide the evidence their employer asks for, they won’t be entitled to the leave.
All employees are entitled to 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave each year. This includes full-time, part-time and casual employees.
An employee’s paid leave entitlement is available in full immediately and resets on the employee’s work anniversary. It doesn’t accumulate from year to year.
Employees must be experiencing family and domestic violence to be eligible to take paid family and domestic violence leave.
If an employee takes paid family and domestic violence leave, they have to let their employer know as soon as possible. This can happen after the leave has started. Employees also need to tell their employer how long they expect the leave to last.
An employer can ask their employee for evidence that shows the employee took the leave to deal with family and domestic violence. If the employee doesn’t provide the requested evidence, they may not get paid the leave.
The evidence has to convince a reasonable person that the employee took the leave to deal with the impact of family and domestic violence and it’s not practical for them to do so outside of their work hours.
An employer can only use this information to satisfy themselves that the employee is entitled to family and domestic violence leave, unless:
The employer can’t use the information for other purposes, including to take adverse action against the employee.
Types of evidence can include:
Employers can ask employees to provide evidence for as little as one day or less off work.
Family and domestic violence means violent, threatening or other abusive behaviour by certain individuals known to an employee that both:
The individual could be:
A close relative is:
1800RESPECT is the national domestic, family and sexual violence counselling, information and support service. If you or someone you know is experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, domestic, family or sexual violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit 1800RESPECT.org.au.
This service can also provide confidential information about what it means to be experiencing domestic, family or sexual violence.
Employers have to take reasonable steps to keep any information about an employee’s situation confidential when they receive it as part of an application for leave. This includes:
Employers can disclose information if:
Any information about an employee’s experience of family and domestic violence is sensitive. If information is mishandled, it could have adverse consequences. Employers should work with their employee to discuss and agree on how this information will be handled.
Employees, including casual employees, can take community service leave for activities such as voluntary emergency management activities or jury duty.
With the exception of jury duty, community service leave is unpaid.
Employees, including casual employees, can take leave to attend jury selection and jury duty.
Employees must advise their employers of the period or expected period of leave as soon as possible. If an employee requests leave they need to provide evidence showing they attended jury selection or jury duty.
Full-time and part-time employees have to be paid ‘make-up pay’ for the first 10 days of jury selection and jury duty. Make-up pay is the difference between any jury duty payment the employee receives (excluding any expense-related allowances) from the court and the employee’s base rate for the ordinary hours they would have worked.
Before paying make-up pay, an employer may request evidence from the employee to show:
If the employee can’t provide evidence, they won’t be entitled to make-up pay.
Casuals don’t get paid for jury duty under the National Employment Standards but they may be entitled to payment under state or territory laws.
An employee engages in a voluntary emergency management activity if:
This includes bodies such as:
An employee is entitled to take community service leave while they are engaged in the activity and for reasonable travel and rest time. There is no limit on the amount of community service leave an employee can take.
An employee who takes community service leave must give their employer:
An employer may request an employee who has given notice, to provide evidence that they’re entitled to community service leave.
