Chortlepuss

No permie jobs in IT in Brisbane so a leave allowance is a bit of a fantasy, but agree with others that forcing people to have 2 weeks at Xmas is well out of order - This whittles down your annual allowance to 2 weeks and December is too hot & busy to enjoy time off. You need an employer receptive to unpaid/flexi. What does suprise me is that annual leave is not used as an incentive here to attract potential employees - There seems to be a collective agreement to keep it at 20 days across the board

bcworld

I worked for a national company in the Brisbane office that due to its own financial dire straits implemented a 3 week shutdown over Xmas...it was 12/20 annual leave days!! I know the LSL pay out threshold is 7 years in Qld too as I looked into it when that company went under. I'd been there for 2.5 years so $0 for me.

sr71

Unless you work for a company that gives you pretty much unlimited sick leave (well 12 months in any 2 year period I think is the official policy)

Interestingly in the US our company decided to do away with official/monitored leave for certain areas and basically told employees just take whatever time off you want - upshot was that employees ended up taking less time off overall. Definitely would be abused in Australia.

spouse of scouse

Definitely would be abused in Australia.[/QUOTE]

Why?

sassie

I just wish you could opt out of long service leave and have an extra week a year instead![/QUOTE]

wouldn't this defeat the purpose of long service leave. Why would they give you an extra weeks leave out of the goodness of their hearts, when you have to earn your loyality and service to have long service leave!!

sr71

Why?[/QUOTE]

I think there is more of a 'taking a sickie' culture over here, people in the US are a bit more appreciative and scared of losing their jobs these days.

Swerv-o

I think there is more of a 'taking a sickie' culture over here, people in the US are a bit more appreciative and scared of losing their jobs these days.[/QUOTE]


Yup. sickie taking is endemic in the paces I have worked here.


S

bcworld

Maybe...but it's a 2 way street. As I said, an employer could ditch me after 6 years and 11 months and I'd have absolutely nothing to show for my loyalty. Not a cent. Long service leave is of no interest to me whatsoever as I don't think I'll ever benefit from it - it's nothing to do with loyalty - people change jobs for all sorts of reasons. My OH worked at Borders for years (but not quite 7)...they didn't exactly benefit from it! In that respect it's stacked in favour of the employer. I'm just saying...you could agree to opt out, take the extra 4.5 days a year and should you happen to stay 10 years the employer doesn't have to cover a 2 month holiday.

Swerv-o

Wasn't that what part of WorkChoices was about? you could trade benefits and entitlements for greater pay/longer leave to suit yourself?

When I started at my first company they offered me a choice of higher rate of pay but with reduced leave or standard rate with standard leave entitlements.


S

knockoff nige

Was the standard still 20 days?

Swerv-o

No that only came in with FWA.


S

knockoff nige

So what was the standard then?

Swerv-o

I think the 20 days was standard, but not set in law. Now it's defined by statute as the minimum.


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KJCherokee

I vaguely remember having annual leave, sick pay and long service leave, but for the last 15 years I have worked on contract where I get paid for the hours I work and don't get paid at all other times. As long as you can negotiate a good enough contract rate that means you can take all the holidays you can afford! I'm just back from a 4 week Christmas break, then we are taking a 6 week European holiday over Easter and another fortnight break in September.

It helps that I have paid off the house and all the kids are married and self-sufficient.

Swerv-o

This is my ideal TBH. I would happily forgo all of those things in exchange for the flexibility of contract work. I was hoping to get that in my current role, but they weren't having any of it


S