5.2 Recreation Leave

Recreational leave is a combination of leave types to assist employees to achieve work-life balance. Recreational leave encompasses annual leave, University Holidays and Public Holidays.

1. Entitlement to Recreation Leave

   1. An employee is entitled to annual leave at the rate of twenty (20) working days for each completed year of paid service from the date of their appointment, or pro rata thereof.

   2. Where an employee is ill or incapacitated while on annual leave for two (2) or more consecutive days and the employee produces proof of illness and/or incapacity, and such evidence is in accordance with sub-clause 5.3 (h), the employee will be placed on personal sick leave (where available) and re-credited the equivalent amount of annual leave.

   3. A full-time employee is entitled to a minimum of ten (10) public holidays per annum where they fall on a day that the employee is rostered to work. An employee may agree to substitute a public holiday so as to observe a public holiday gazetted by the relevant State or Territory authority in relation to the campus location where the employee is based for work purposes. The exception to this is the Bank Holiday (NSW) which for relevant employees will be taken in conjunction with the annual Christmas closedown. An employee is entitled to any additional gazetted public holidays as observed in each State or Territory authority in relation to the campus location where the employee is based for work purposes.

   4. A full-time employee is entitled to three (3) days of University Holidays which are associated with the annual Christmas closedown.

2. Planning for Leave and Applying for and Taking Leave

   1. Annual leave will be taken at a time or times that are mutually convenient to the University and the employee.

   2. An academic employee and their supervisor must make provision for the employee to take annual leave when consulting about the employee’s academic workload allocation each year, to support the employee’s health and wellbeing by enabling them to take a break from work to recuperate.

3. Management of Excess Annual Leave

Direction to Take Leave

1. In circumstances where an employee’s annual leave credits exceed forty (40) days, or fifty (50) days for a shift worker, the University is entitled to direct that employee to take ten (10) days annual leave to immediately reduce the balance of their annual leave credits below thirty (30) days by a specified date.

2. Any such notice will provide that, within two (2) months of the date of the notice the employee may negotiate with their supervisor for an agreed time for the leave to be taken to bring the accrued leave entitlement below thirty (30) days within six (6) months of the date of the notice.

3. If, at the expiry of two (2) months from the date of the notice referred to in sub-clause 5.2 (c)(ii) above, no agreed plan for reducing the accrued annual leave entitlement has been established in accordance with sub-clause 5.2(b) or 5.2(c)(ii); or the employee cancels such planned leave; in the absence of any exceptional circumstances the University may direct the employee to take sufficient annual leave to bring their accrued entitlement below thirty (30) days, and may direct the dates on which such leave will be taken. The University must give at least two (2) months’ notice of the date on which the employee is directed to take leave.

4. In circumstances where the employee is directed to take annual leave, the University will be entitled to deduct the directed amount from the employee’s accrued annual leave balance.

4. Cashing out excess Annual Leave

   1. In circumstances where an employee’s annual leave entitlement exceeds forty (40) days, or fifty (50) days for a shift worker, the employee may elect to cash out up to twenty (20) days of annual leave if the employee is a full-time employee, (and pro rata of the full-time entitlement to twenty (20) days if the employee is a part time employee), at the rate equivalent to the amount the employee would have received for working their ordinary hours during the period to be cashed out if:

      • The employee provides written notice to the University stating that they wish to forego the annual leave and receive the payment instead; and

      • The University agrees to allow the employee to forego the annual leave.

5. Payment of Untaken Leave on Termination

   Where an employee ceases employment with the University or dies, that person or their estate will be paid all accrued and untaken annual leave, in accordance with sub-clause 8.6 (e).