Leave


Your leave is protected under the Hair and Beauty Award and National Employment Standards.
If you’re a permanent worker (whether you’re full-time or part time), you’re entitled to:

  • annual leave,
  • public holidays,
  • sick & carer’s leave,
  • compassionate leave,
  • parental leave,
  • long-service leave and
  • domestic violence leave.

If you’re a casual worker, you’re entitled to:

  • public holidays,
  • compassionate leave,
  • parental leave,
  • domestic violence leave, and
  • long service leave.

Annual leave

All permanent workers are entitled to 4 weeks’ annual leave every 12 months. These 4 weeks roll over year to year, meaning any outstanding annual leave in 2019 is carried through to 2020. Your leave is paid at your base hourly rate, plus a 17.5% loading, and you don’t receive weekend or overtime penalty rates, or shift allowances.

Your employer can require you to take annual leave, provided you have two weeks of annual leave accrued. You can take annual leave before it is accrued (putting you in a ‘negative leave balance’) but you and your employer must agree to this in writing. If you leave an employer before you’ve accrued all your leave (i.e. your balance is still negative) then your employer may deduct this from your final pay. If your salon goes into liquidation, then any accrued annual leave is protected under Federal Law – contact us for more info.

Public Holidays

For a full list of public holidays in your state/territory, click here.

Under the Hair and Beauty Award, all casual and permanent workers are entitled to a 250% penalty rate for working on a public holiday.

You can refuse to work on a public holiday, and are protected under the NES from adverse action (i.e. being bullied, threatened or punished for refusing to work).

If you a permanent worker that is normally rostered on over a public holiday and your salon is closed, then you are entitled to be paid for ordinary hours at your base rate.

Sick/Carer’s Leave

All permanent workers are entitled to 10 days of sick and carer’s leave every 12 months. This carries into each year, meaning it doesn’t reset on January 1.

You can take a full day or part day of leave, and it accumulates in days, not hours.

Part days can still be deducted – for example if you went home 4 hours into an 8 hour shift, then you would use up half a day of leave and have 9.5 days remaining. You can take sick leave for personal illnesses including stress and pregnancy. This is protected under NES and is completely valid.

You can take carer’s leave to look after someone in your immediate household who is ill, which includes:

  • Spouse or former spouse, or de facto partner or former de facto partner
  • Child
  • Grandchild
  • Parent
  • Grandparent
  • Your spouse or de factor partner’s (or former spouse or partner’s) child, grandchild, parent or grandparent.

Your leave is paid at your base hourly rate, and you don’t receive weekend or overtime penalty rates, or shift allowances. There is no minimum notice period required, but it’s good manners to contact your employer as soon as can – ideally two hours before your shift should start.

You are not required to find someone else to cover your shift for you, and you don’t need to justify or specify your illness if you don’t want to. Here is a good template to use for email or SMS for your employer:

Hey, (employers name) I am letting you know I am unfit for work today. I will be claiming sick leave, and will provide you with a medical cert from my GP ASAP. My apologies, (your name)

Just keep it short and sweet and stick to the facts!

Unpaid Sick Leave

All permanent and casual workers are allowed to take up to 3 months’ unpaid sick leave for illness or injury within a 12-month period without being dismissed. Your employer can request evidence of illness or injury (i.e. a doctor’s note).

Compassionate Leave

All permanent and casual workers are entitled to two days of compassionate leave when a member of your immediate family or household faces life-threatening illness or injury, or has died. This includes:

  • Spouse or former spouse, or de facto partner or former de facto partner
  • Child
  • Grandchild
  • Parent
  • Grandparent
  • Your spouse or de factor partner’s (or former spouse or partner’s) child, grandchild, parent or grandparent.

There is no 12-month limit on compassionate leave, meaning it applies if multiple members of your immediate family die, or have a life-threatening illness or injury within the span of a year. Your leave is paid at your base hourly rate, and you don’t receive weekend or overtime penalty rates, or shift allowances.

Parental Leave

All permanent and casual workers can access parental leave. This is 12 months of unpaid leave, meaning your job must be available to you when you return.

You must give 10 weeks notice of your leave, and give your employer your anticipated start and end date. You also must confirm these dates at least four weeks before your intended start date.

Parental leave can start up to 6 weeks before the expected due date of your baby. If you want to continue to work within the 6 weeks before your baby’s birth, you may be asked to provide a medical certificate stating you’re fit to work.

Once your 12 months of parental leave has finished, you can ask for another 12 months, providing you have full responsibility of the child and your spouse or partner hasn’t also taken parental leave. However, your employer may deny an extension of leave if there are ‘reasonable business grounds.’ These aren’t defined in the NES, so if you need more advice on this, reach out to us.

If you are eligible for parental leave, and you’re the main caregiver of a newborn or adopted child, you get up to 18 weeks’ leave paid at the national minimum wage. In the unfortunate event that you have a long-term illness while you’re pregnant, or if you have an early end to your pregnancy or stillbirth, you are eligible for unpaid special maternity leave. If this does happen to you, contact us for more information.

Domestic Violence Leave

All permanent and casual workers are entitled to 5 days of unpaid domestic violence leave every 12 months. This does not roll over year to year, but you are entitled to a full 5 days as soon as you start work.

This leave is to give you the time to do things that you can’t otherwise fit into your schedule, such as relocating or making safety arrangements for yourself or your family, attending court, or accessing police services.

Your employer may ask for evidence, like documents from police or court services or a medical certificate, but they are required to keep everything strictly confidential.

Long Service Leave

All permanent workers and casual workers in certain states/ territories are entitled to long-service leave. This varies state to state, so click here to find the information that’s most relevant for you. If you think you are entitled to long-service leave, get in touch with us, and we can help.

My employer isn’t letting me take entitled leave, or paying my entitlements properly. What do I do?

  1. Check the Award and National Employment Standards. Read over this document or get in touch with us if you’re not sure, and we’ll confirm whether your employer is breaching legislation. If it doesn’t add up, then investigate!
  2. Gather your evidence. Screenshot SMS or Facebook messages, forward emails to another account and take photos of any handwritten notes or payslips. Make sure you have copies of everything in safe place.
  3. Contact your employer. Make it clear that to them they are breaching the Hair and Beauty Award, or National Employment Standards. Email, write or SMS your employer and state that you are asking for your legal entitlements. Stick to the facts and try not to be emotional. The Hair and Beauty Award and National Employment Standards are correct, not your employer. There is no exceptions to the law!
  4. Take it further. If your employer still refuses to give you your entitled leave, get in touch, and we can help escalate the situation through the Fair Work Commission or your local small claims court.