Leave

All employees, except casual employees, are entitled to a minimum of four weeks annual leave, or holidays, for each year they work. Shift workers may be entitled to a minimum of five weeks annual leave if they meet certain requirements.

You don't have to work a full year before you are entitled to annual leave. Annual leave is accrued on a pro-rata basis. This means that if you work half a year, you will be entitled to half your annual leave.

Some awards, enterprise agreements or contracts of employment provide for more than four weeks annual leave. You should contact the Fair Work Ombudsman or get legal advice to find out how much annual leave you are entitled to.

To find:

• an award, see Find My Award on the  Fair Work Ombudsman website
• an enterprise agreement, use the Fair Work Commission website
• how much annual leave you may have accrued, use the Leave Calculator on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

If you are an employee who is entitled to annual leave, you can take any, or part of any, annual leave owing, with your employer's permission. Your employer cannot refuse permission unreasonably. This means they will need to have a good reason to refuse permission. Reasons could include:

• other staff are on leave at the same time
• you are asking for leave during a busy time
• you haven't provided sufficient notice.

Your employer can also ask you to take annual leave if you have too much owing to you, or if their business needs to be closed over a certain period. Any request that you to take annual leave should be reasonable and you should be given reasonable notice.

If your employer is not letting you take annual leave, or is forcing you to take leave, and you think it is unreasonable, you should get legal advice.

All employees are entitled to be absent from work to undertake voluntary community emergency activities or jury service. This is called community service leave. There is no set limit on how much leave you can take, but you may have to supply your employer with:

• notice, as soon as it is practical for you to do so
• information about how long you expect to be on leave
• evidence of the community service you are involved in.

Community service leave is generally unpaid. However, if the leave is for jury duty, then you are entitled to ‘make up pay’ for up to the first 10 days that you miss work because of jury service. Make up pay is the difference between your ordinary pay and what you are paid for jury service. 

For information about the amount payable for jury service in NSW, see the ‘Payment for jury service’ page of the Courts and Tribunal Services website. 

State or Territory laws may provide for better entitlements than the National Employment Standards in relation to community service leave. You should contact the Fair Work Ombudsman or get legal advice to find out what you are entitled to.

You should check your award, enterprise agreement or contract of employment to see if you are entitled to any extra leave.

If your employer refuses to pay you for leave that you are entitled to, there are steps you can take to try and recover the money that you are owed. For more information, see What if my entitlements are not paid?

Compassionate leave is any time off work to spend time with an immediate family member or member of your household who has a life threatening illness or injury. It also includes any time off work because an immediate family member or member of your household dies.

Under the National Employment Standards (NES), all employees (except casual employees) are entitled to take up to two days paid compassionate leave for each occasion that a member of their immediate family or household needs support.

If you take compassionate leave you should be paid for your ordinary hours of work at your base rate of pay.

Casual employees are entitled to two days unpaid compassionate leave. 

You should check your award, enterprise ​agreement or contract of employment to see if you are entitled to more compassionate leave than the minimum available under the NES.

Family and domestic violence leave is any time off work because you need to deal with the impact of family and domestic violence.

For example, this can include:

• arranging for your safety or the safety of a close relative (including relocating)
• attending court hearings 
• accessing police services.

Family and domestic violence includes violent, threatening or other abusive behaviour by a close relative that seeks to control you, or causes you harm or fear.

A close relative can include:

• your spouse, de facto partner, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild or sibling
• your spouse or de facto partner's child, parent grandparent, grandchild or sibling. 

Under the National Employment Standards (NES), all employees including casuals are entitled to family and domestic violence leave.

If you are an employee of a small business (with less than 15 employees), you are entitled to take five days unpaid family and domestic violence leave every year. You can take this leave as one block of five days, separate days or any separate period less than a day.

From the 1 August 2023, employees of small businesses will be entitled to take 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave each year. Until then, small business employees can continue to take unpaid family and domestic violence leave.

If you are an employee of a non-small business (with 15 or more employees), you are entitled to 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave every year. You can take this leave as one block of ten days, separate days or any separate period less than a day.

Paid family and domestic violence leave has to be recorded on a pay slip as normal pay for ordinary hours of work, or any other kind of payment for performing work, such as an allowance, bonus or overtime. You can also request that the leave is recorded as another type of leave. 

You should check your award, enterprise agreement or contract of employment to see if you are entitled to more family and domestic violence leave than the minimum available under the NES.

For more information, see Family and domestic violence leave on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

Employees who work for one employer for a particular length of time may be entitled to extra leave. This is called long service leave, or extended leave.

In New South Wales, you are generally entitled to two months long service leave after working for the same employer for 10 years. You are entitled to an extra month of leave for every five years after that. This may be different if you are in another state or territory. If you work part time, you are still entitled to long service leave.

If you are a casual employee, you may still be entitled to long service leave. You should get legal advice.

Some industries, for example the building and construction industry and the contract cleaning industry, have different conditions that apply to long service leave. You should get legal advice if you are not sure about your long service leave entitlements. 

You should check your award, enterprise agreement or employment contract to see what your long service leave entitlements are.

To find out how much long service leave you might be entitled to, you can use the 'Long Service Leave Calculator' on the Industrial Relations website.

Parental leave is time off work for the birth or adoption of a child. All employees are entitled to 12 months unpaid parental leave if they have at least 12 months continuous service with their employer. Parental leave also applies in relation to same sex de facto relationships and single parents.

Generally a parent is entitled to take 12 months unpaid parental leave, usually taken separately. In certain circumstances, you may also be able to ask for an additional 12 months unpaid parental leave if you have a partner and your partner has not taken their full 12 months. Your employer can refuse additional leave if they have reasonable business grounds.

If your child was born or adopted after 1 July 2023 your family may also be entitled to paid parental leave under the federal government’s Paid Parental Leave scheme. 

Paid Parental Leave is up to 20 weeks, or 100 payable days based on a five day work week, to share by a couple or in full to a single parent:

• the most one parent in a couple can use is 90 days
• to get the full 100 days, both parents need to claim and be eligible
• if only one parent in the couple is eligible, the 90 day limit still applies
• if you’re a single parent, you can get the full 100 days of Parental Leave Pay.  

From 1 July 2023 you must meet an income, work and residence test. For more information and to check the rates of pay, see the Services Australia Website. 

Some employees may be entitled to extra paid or unpaid parental leave. You should check your award, enterprise agreement or contract of employment to see what you are entitled to.

There are other parental leave entitlements, including consultation requirements and a return to work guarantee. For more information about parental leave, go to the Parental leave and related entitlements fact sheet on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

Personal/carer’s leave is any time off work because you are sick or you need to care for an immediate family member. It includes both sick leave and carer’s leave.

Sick leave is any leave that you take when you cannot go to work because you are sick or injured.

Carer’s leave is any time off work to look after a member of your immediate family or household who is unwell or if there is an emergency.

Under the National Employment Standards (NES), all employees (except casual employees) are entitled to paid personal/carer’s leave. If you are a full time employee you are generally entitled to 10 days paid personal/carer’s leave for each year you work. If you work part time, you are entitled to paid personal/carer’s leave on a pro rata basis. This means your leave entitlement will be a percentage of what a full-time employee would get, based on the number of hours you work. 

Personal/carer’s leave accrues on a pro rata basis. For example, if you work for six months, you will be entitled to at least five days paid personal/carer’s leave (full time employee). Any personal/carer’s leave that an employee does not take for each year they work can be added (accrue) to the next year.

If you take personal/carer’s leave you should be paid for your ordinary hours of work at your base rate of pay.

Under the NES, casual employees are only entitled to unpaid carer’s leave or unpaid compassionate leave.

You should check your award, enterprise agreement or contract of employment to see if you are entitled to more personal/ carer’s leave than the minimum under the NES. 

Employees (including casual employees) are entitled to two days of unpaid carer’s leave when a member of the employee’s immediate family or someone who lives with them, needs care or support because:

• they are sick or injured,
• there is an unexpected emergency. 

Generally you can’t take unpaid carer’s leave if you have paid personal/carer’s leave that you could take instead.

Some employees may be entitled to other types of leave, depending on their award, enterprise agreement or contract of employment, or because legislation allows it. Some examples of other ty​pes of leave that may be available include:

• leave for victims of domestic violence
• study leave
• leave to attend court (other than for jury service)
• Defence Forces leave.

If you are not sure what leave you are entitled to you should contact the Fair Work Ombudsman or get legal advice.