Q: Our collective stipulates that after 5 years of continuous service, the employee is entitled to 5 weeks of annual leave per annum.

We have an employee who has worked in the organization for 9 years and has decided to join the union. Do we start accruing at 5 weeks from the employee’s start date or from when they officially join the union? There is nothing in the collective about this.

A: You need to check if there is any set practice that has been used in the past (precedent).  If not then I would base it on when they joined the union from that point as the employee was under other terms and conditions prior to joining.