Comments on: Should Australia embrace six weeks of annual leave?

By: Lari McDonald Seadragonz

Tue, 26 Sep 2023 02:18:06 +0000

The countries that have more annual leave also do not have long service leave. I think needs to be part of the conversation. Australia actually has more paid leave than all of these other countries if you take this into the equation. Small businesses are struggling enough – to ask for another two weeks paid leave is just another burden. Scrap the LSL which has outlived its usefulness as getting back to the ‘old country’ is now a day not weeks on a boat which is why it was instituted in the first place.

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By: Dave Portway

Tue, 26 Sep 2023 00:39:44 +0000

How about we scrap LSL and roll that accrual into Annual Leave?
Then we get the additional AL without additional cost.
I would like to see some research on tenure, wondering how many people crack 10 years somewhere.
For me, seven years twice, never 10.
My wife did 23 years with one employer, but suspect this is becoming more isolated.
Average tenure in a role somewhere around 3.5 years.
Should we not be looking at an outdated model and utilising to suit a new way of approaching?

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By: Caylene

Tue, 26 Sep 2023 00:18:24 +0000

Obviously the people coming up with these ideas are not the ones who have to fund them? Do those other countries get 13 public holidays a year, isnt that the 6 week equivalent anyway?

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By: Matt

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 23:52:34 +0000

Our biggest financial concern is the unused leave liability that is growing exponentially post-Covid and I hear the same from lots of HR people. Interestingly some of our workforce have 6 wks leave that was granted through a pre-merger contract arrangement. We are trying to replace with purchased leave options to reduce cost impact in a not-for-profit. This is a better way to go as you can opt in and opt out – if people don’t use the additional purchased leave (which surprisingly is very common) you don’t allow for a continuation of the arrangement to reduce leave blowout. Some people won’t use 4 wks leave – to increase the entitlement by 50% is going to cost companies and increase the cost of resignations (and give a lot of tax to the ATO on unused leave).

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By: Maria

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 23:17:12 +0000

or, put in place leave benefits that allow employees to chose what matters most – for example, salary sacrificing additional leave. The leave accrual liability at every organisation I’ve worked at have been of major concern already, let alone adding another 10 days per year per employee. Approx 5-6% of our population have taken up purchased leave because they want more leave THIS year, not necessarily every year.

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By: Ruth

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 23:16:41 +0000

I worked in the USA for 10 years; I got three weeks leave because I travelled 3 weeks in four for about 10 months of the year. My colleagues in the office got one week per annum and about 5 public holidays. Most of the public holidays there are not universal. Americans were amazed Australians got around 12 public holidays a year.
It is interesting we look to the Scandinavians because they have more weeks of annual leave than we do but we don’t look at the countries with less. Apparently, Singapore has a minimum requirement of seven days, but most employees get 14.
Only the public sector or a large corporation could afford to offer the six weeks/year. Our GDP has declined on a per capita basis so not sure how this is sustainable.

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