Swerv-o

WTF???


Australians hoarding annual leave 'a disgrace': Ferguson


Are there any other aspects of our lives the government would like to dictate while they're at it?



S

Pollyana

Bit ironic seeing that a lot of senior govt staff have years of annual leave stored up! Mind you in a department like ours a lot of staff don't get the chance to use their leave cos of operations.

Sally Simpson

Actually I don't think it a bad thing that people be made to take leave & not store it up for years on end. It is not really in a person's best interests to not take a break from work intermittently let alone for years on end.
Where I worked in the UK we were only allowed to carry forward one week of leave, use it or lose it.

Amazulu

A bizarre statement from this idiot. Government laws allow the long service leave, if he doesn't like this, then his government should change the law

What a tool

DeadVim

Yup, a total tool ... trying to encourage people to holiday in Oz eh? Well, maybe the fact it is cheaper to go to Bali is a greater factor.

Swerv-o

This whole "You're un-Australian if you purchase overseas/holiday overseas/buy imported goods..." attitude really grinds my gears.

Australians are finally waking up to the fact that they are being fleeced across many retail markets, and now that they are doing something about it, they are suddenly un-Australian.


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geordiebloke

Would love to holiday in Australia if it wasn't so bloody expensive.

Would love to visit Cairns, Gold Coast etc, but 1 week in Queensland v 2
weeks in Asia for the same price???????? no contest!

And as for the "use it or lose it" bull shit, well it's my leave, I've earned it, let me decide when I want to take it!!

Don't mind being told when I can't take leave, aint gonna accept being told when I must take it!

iamthecreaturefromuranus

You don't want to be working at my company then. People with outstanding long service leave have been ordered to take it.

Merseygirl

Totally agree with you there
Anyway, nothing wrong in being Un-Australian, it shows you can think independently and not just follow the herd.

Steve2009

The Irish tourism industry relied on domestic spending for a long time too and followed a similar cycle (when it tailed off, or rather stopped dead). Only now they're starting to get the overseas visitors back. I was in Tangalooma last weekend and if it's any indication of how out of touch these guys are then they are in trouble.

sonlymewalter

Holiday allowance is intended to reduce stress and absence and anyone who's worked somewhere like USA where holiday allowance is often a couple of weeks a year knows how shit a couple of weeks holiday is If Aus went backwards and decided people didn't need as much holiday cos proof showed people took less than 4 weeks annually we'd all be really pissed

If someone takes less than their allowance and ends up with work related stress they can also potentially claim employer liability as effectively the employer contributed due to not enforcing a holiday policy that protects its workers

At the end of the day we're at work to service customers so holidays need to be planned for. If everyone saved up their annual allowance and took no holidays year in year out it would be a nightmare. what if one year the company reduced staffing by 10% due to the recession and people work longer hours and everyone decides to take their *accrued* holidays that year? who will look after the customer and how does anyone manage planned productivity Having said this there should also be flexible rules where people can accrue a certain amount if they need to take extra long special holidays so it's all planned for

Don't wanna piss on anyone's bonfire .....but holiday hoarding sounds good but it's not really a good way of managing a business and its people

EvannTel

As well as all the very valid health and R& R aspects to taking leave, another very important point is the cost to business.
A cash allowance must be made to cover accrued leave. This can be considerable in a large organisation and must be funded somehow. Also the real dollar value increases too for hoarding leave. You're leave is paid at todays rate, if you don't take it this year but next and in the interim have a 5% pay rise, this additional cost must be funded by the employer/business.
It makes very sound business sense to ensure leave accruals are kept to a minimum and for a variety of reasons, most already explained on here, the employer has aright to manage employees annual leave if they do not manage it appropriately themselves.

sonlymewalter

ok so now we've peed on everyones bonfire our job is done

ProudVIC

This guy is the federal minister for tourism. If he can't get people to take holidays in Australia and boost the domestic tourist market then he will be assessed as having failed and will be demoted to the backbench. It is make or break for this guy probably.

All politicians do the same thing let's face it.

At the end of the day people can take leave whenever they want and accrue it however they wish, however they will have to suffer the health issues etc. of working too long without sufficient breaks.

fish.01

"Mr Ferguson said the amount of leave owed to Australian workers was "a disgrace"."

When you see the actual quote it makes it less clear what he meant. Was this line actually a dig at employers before going on to encourage employees to take more leave. Not as clear to me as the thread title/article suggests