chutley

We were originally looking at moving to Canada for quality of life. However, after lots of research, have found a big stumbling block - just 10 days holiday a year. And its generally frowned upon to take it all. Don't fancy moving somewhere where you have to work that hard - holidays are important and there is no point being somewhere if you can't enjoy it.

So what's the sketch in OZ? Plenty of holidays, or nose to the grinstone. I cuurently get 7 weeks in the UK, plus BH. Grateful for any info.

quoll

Generally 4 weeks annual leave and some employers are pretty picky when you can take it. After 10 years continuous service you get 3 months long service leave in most places. Slightly fewer public holidays than UK I think but not much difference. Some places allow flex time but it all depends on your job - that way you can build up your hours and take the occasional day off.

jond

The norm is 20 days plus public holidays, which here in Victoria i think is about the same as the UK.

John

medwaymark

Most of the jobs I applied for were 20 days. If you manage to get a government job, they get to take an extra day off every couple of weeks (flex-time).

The other thing I noticed was that you have to earn the holiday before you take it. Not like my old job where on 1 January you had 25 days holiday....here I earn a day & a half each month & can only take as much as I have built up....which is pants!

Dorothy

Not necessarily true. The basic vacation entitlement is 4% of your work hours, which as a full time employee works out to 2 weeks. If you work 20 hours per week you are only entitled to 5 days. However, holiday entitlement in Canada is negotiated with your employer. My husband had 6 weeks per year. My sister - Ontario government employee - has 4, plus works flex hours. 10 hours M-T with every Friday off. I had the usual 2 weeks paid, but also banked hours so I could take an extra 2 weeks during the year.

Safin

Wow! You'll have to go some to match that - in any country.

Unless you're a teacher that is.... (Don't all jump on me teachers I think you need it and a medal for all you do term time - and I know you have planning etc to do...)

Gems

Yes, teachers holidays are pretty good. But like you say they do work hard.
However its great if you have kids or want to travel.

Gems

quoll

Teachers still only get 4 weeks annual leave entitlement - the rest of the time is stand down and they can be asked to attend work at any time during that period for a variety of reasons. They have to take their annual leave over Christmas for obvious reasons and when you add it to the public holidays in that period it usually takes them to the end of January - close to 6 weeks.

Bix da Boss

We live in Cairns Queensland.
My hubby gets 4 weeks holiday per year. All the usual public holidays plus, Anzac Day, Labour Day, Australia Day, the Queens Birthday and a Cairns Show day. I think it works out to 10 days public holiday in Cairns and other parts of Queensland.

Safin

Oh that's different to the uk they get almost the same as the kids - but then I think teaching is organised much more centrally here with postings rather than being directly employed by individual schools. At least in Queensland.

ABCDiamond

The way flex time in the government works is that your actual hours are recorded, and any extra time you do is accumulated, and given back in flex time.

So if you get to work 15 minutes early each day, and leave 15 minutes late, then after 10 days you have 300 minutes (5 hrs) flex available.
Trim your lunch break by 15 minutes aswell, and you can get that up to 7.5hrs, ie: 1 day per fortnight.

This is for the Federal Government, not sure about the State Governments though.

Dorothy

Same for WA Dept of Health. At least for my contract anyway.

mark213

In the UK i used to get 25 plus public holidays

I get 20 days per year with statuatory public holidays (WA) which I worked out to be 2 more than the UK. Net overall I am 3 down in Oz.

You also get long long serivces if you are hardcore in staying somewhere. Not sure if I'll ever get it though.

Some places here, like in the UK allow you to salary sacrifice your pay for more leave. Just check the conditions of each employer.

Mikeyc

I think the norm is 4 weeks. My job gives 4 weeks (but you have to build them up, so after 1 year working with them I will have 4 weeks), plus 12 RDO’s, Plus public holidays, and I get unlimited paid sick days.

My partner gets 6 weeks holidays, plus flexi time (extra time worked to get more time off), plus public holidays and he can get take 12 months to 5 years long term leave (without pay or half pay for 6 months).

It all depends on the position and company, but generally I think its 4 weeks.

PS: For anyone working in Banking head for St George Bank, if you work 3 years you get the 4th year off – fully paid! (think they still have that deal going on) lol

Mikey