A new ruling could mean companies owe shift workers millions of dollars in unpaid sick leave
.jpg)
Employers might soon find themselves having to pay millions of dollars in back pay after an industrial arbiter ruled in favour of giving workers more hours of paid leave per year.
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) released its decision on a dispute between pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the Australian Workers Union (AWU) centred on how workers accrue paid leaves.
The current industry practice requires employers to provide an average of 76 hours of paid leave to their workers based on the average 7.6-hour work day and the national minimum standard of 10 days of sick leave per year.
In the AstraZeneca dispute, workers at the drug maker challenged how the number of days of sick leave are calculated. The entitlement should be based on the length of shifts completed by employees, according to the AWU.
Shift workers who work for 12 hours, based on the standard day for one of the employees, should therefore receive 120 hours of paid leave per year.
The FWC upheld the AWU’s interpretation, stating that employees are entitled to 10 days of sick leave per year. FWC Deputy President Lyndall Dean said AstraZeneca workers who are on 10-hour and 12-hour shifts should have their sick leave entitlements calculated based on these work hours.
“I cannot accept AstraZeneca’s submission that the entitlement to 10 days of paid personal/carer’s leave means an entitlement to payment equal to the time that would have been worked on 10 ordinary or standard days of averaged ordinary hours, i.e. of 7.2 or 7.6 hours duration,” Dean said.
