Australia is one of the best places to live if annual leave is important to you. Australia is liberal in the time given for people to enjoy life and friends and family. The standard amount is four weeks a year, after the first year with a company. The first year’s annual leave is pro-rated for the amount of time with the company. Most public employees or ‘servants’ receive five weeks of annual leave. The standard working week in Australia is only 38.5 hours and some companies have even shorter weeks.
Casual workers receive higher rates of hourly pay to compensate for the lack of annual leave, whereas those who work part-time, such as students, are given a pro-rated amount of annual leave based on the hours worked. These workers do not receive annual leave at all.
A typical allowance for sick leave is 10 days, and one or two days for compassionate leave. Public servants, again, typically receive more generous benefits. Leave days tend to carry forward, so if the days aren’t all used in one year they may be called upon in the next year. Unpaid sick leave is rarely paid out in the case of a worker leaving a company.
Long service leave
There is also Long Service Leave available to encourage workers to stay long-term with a company, as they are paid out after 10 years. LSL is accrued for all worker types from full-time to causal. It accrues at a rate of one week for every 60 weeks of employment with a single employer. This means in most cases that you will receive around 13 weeks of leave a year after 15 years of employment.