Q: Hope you may be able to help me define/explain some questions to an employee.

Scenario is:

Long term employee has moved from 5 day working week to 2 day working week.

At the time employee had no outstanding HP, however had accrued 9.04 days.  (unfortunately we show this on payslips).

Once we changed the DOW to 2 days, this accrued moved to 3.77 days.

I have talked to the employee what accrued leave means, but they have come back questioning it, along with saying “I have talked to others and they agree it is not fair”.

Even if I didn’t want to reduce the days the system does not let me override it, we use MYOB exo.

A: There is entitlement and there is accrual:

Any period less than 12 months is accrual and by law it is defined as 8% of gross earnings, it does not represent time.  A failing of payroll systems is they convert money into time as it is easier for the employee to understand but technically it is only money (8% of gross).

Entitlement is earned once the employee has reached 12 months continuous employment and accrual changes from money (8%) to now be time and money as it represents weeks and calculations are defined by law on what value that leave has.

At the same time a week is by agreement and if the week by agreement changes any accrual or even entitlement must now change to reflect the new agreed week.

You have done everything right.  It is not about being fair it is about being compliant with law and you have done this.