Q: We have an employee who has taken a significant drop in salary and has asked for a week of annual leave cash up, which we have paid (in May).
He has now asked for another week to be paid but the way I read it, he is only entitled to one week/payment per year.
However, is this one week paid out per year (so we would have to wait for his next entitlement date to pass in January 2025) or one week of each year that he has worked for us?
He started in January 2021 and currently has 80.5 hours of annual leave entitlement (after the 40 hours have been paid already) and 75 further hours of accrued leave.
A: It is one week a year in the current entitlement year. So, if they have not done this in previous years, they cannot get those previous years’ payments now.
Annual leave paid out uses Section 21 greater of AWE and OWP, so if they have had a drop in salary, this may flow on into the rate for leave, and they will get a lower rate for leave paid out.