On 2 August 2019 the Full Federal Court ruled that a pair of 12-hour shift workers at a chocolate factory in Tasmania are entitled to 10 calendar days of paid personal/carer’s leave (P/C), equating to 120 hours per annum (10 days at 12 hours), rather than the lesser amount argued by their employer of 76 hours per annum (10 days at 7.6 hours). This is a decision that will impact heavily on employers involved n 12-hour shift work.

On 2 August 2019 the Full Federal Court ruled that a pair of 12-hour shift workers at a chocolate factory in Tasmania are entitled to 10 calendar days of paid personal/carer’s leave (P/C), equating to 120 hours per annum (10 days at 12 hours), rather than the lesser amount argued by their employer of 76 hours per annum (10 days at 7.6 hours). This is a decision that will impact heavily on employers involved n 12-hour shift work.

The Court accepted the AMWU’s interpretation of the P/C Leave entitlement in the National Employment Standards (NES), which provides employees with 10 days P/C leave per year of service. The Union argued that NES mandates a minimum of 10 days of such leave and employees working 12-hour shifts, this should give them an entitlement to 120 hours of P/C leave, whereas the company argued they were due 10 shifts of 7.6 hours each, which is predicated on the employees ordinary hours.

As will be appreciated, the result of the decision provides a more generous benefit to employees than the 76 hours they would have been entitled to under the Fair Work Act 2009, since the commencement of the NES on January 1, 2010.

Impact on Employers
Most payroll systems used by employers accrue P/C leave on an hourly basis. Rather than expressing an employee’s leave entitlement in days or weeks, payroll software tends to record the accrual as an hourly amount (with 7.6 hours often reflecting one day’s accrual). In all, payroll systems tend to accrue 76 hours of P/C leave per year for full time employees, and a pro-rata amount for part-time employees.
If your payroll system works in this way, you will need to ensure that:
• Employees working 12-hour shifts, will now accrue 120 hours of personal/carer’s leave per year, instead of, what has been the general practice of 76 hours. The decision will have the same effect on other shift workers who work more than 7.6 ordinary hours in a day;
• Part-time employees now accrue a full 10 working days per year, as opposed to a pro-rated amount based on their shorter working week.

Is Annual Leave Impacted???
Where the Full Court did not deal with annual leave on this occasion, there is no doubt that it will sooner rather than later. Annual leave is an entitlement which is expressed in weeks, as opposed to hours, and similar considerations will likely apply to how “one week’s leave” is calculated.

If you have any questions related to the above, please contact me via my email address at john@lambwrc.com or my mobile on 0428 112 008.