Annual Leave over the Holiday Season
If your office is closing down and/or any staff are taking leave over the Holiday Season here are a few resources and tips that may assist:
Firstly, find out if you able to direct an employee to take annual leave while the office closes down. Fair Work provides guidance here: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/leave/annual-leave/directing-an-employee-to-take-annual-leave/direction-to-take-annual-leave-during-a-shut-down
Employees are entitled to a 4 weeks annual leave per year, pro-rated for the hours worked as set out in the National Employment Standards (NES). https://www.fairwork.gov.au/how-we-will-help/templates-and-guides/fact-sheets/minimum-workplace-entitlements/annual-leave
Annual Leave should not be reduced by any Public Holidays that occur within the employees leave period. A list of the Public Holidays can be found here: holidays http://www.industrialrelations.nsw.gov.au/oirwww/NSW_public_holidays/NSW_Public_Holidays.page
Fair Work provides a basic calculator to assist in working out employee entitlements to leave https://calculate.fairwork.gov.au/leave
Some employees are entitled to Annual Leave Loading when taking annual leave, this means they are paid a percentage over their ordinary rate. Refer to the employment contract and/or the award rules for your employee to determine if this is applicible.
If your employee has not accumulated enough leave to cover the full office closure dates, you can provide leave without pay or allow your employee to take more leave than they have available. If paying the employee for unaccrued leave, keep in mind that the employee will need to accrue this leave in the future. If they leave prior to accumulating enough leave a deduction from their final pay would be required.
We will be working through the holiday season, but for most clients where the office is closing, we will be providing payroll calculations for the closure period in advance. This means our clients can pre-set all payments and they do not need to worry about paying employees during the break!
Please be sure to speak to your Bookkeeper or Accountant regarding the best process for you business over this Holiday season!