Purpose

O’Brien Plumbing Rowville is committed to providing a considered approach to balancing the leave needs of its employees with the operational requirements of the company.

Scope

This Leave Policy will address both paid and unpaid leave provisions for all full­time employees at O’Brien Plumbing Rowville. These provisions will differ with regard to employment type (i.e. full­time, part­time or casual).

Annual Leave

O’Brien Plumbing Rowville encourages employees to establish a balance between their working and personal lives. The purpose of annual recreation leave is to provide rest and recreation and to reduce personal health risks.

An employee is entitled to paid annual leave (excluding payments which might have been payable to the employee as a reimbursement for expenses incurred e.g. overtime, special rates, travel and fares) for a total of 4 weeks for each 12 months of service with O’Brien Plumbing Rowville. Any public holidays that fall during annual leave will be added on to the leave period.

Annual leave accrues progressively throughout the year and will accumulate from year to year.

O’Brien Plumbing Rowville will not unreasonably refuse to agree to a request by the employee to take paid annual leave.

O’Brien Plumbing Rowville and the employee may agree to take annual leave in advance of the 4 weeks being accrued. O’Brien Plumbing Rowville may therefore deduct from the employees’ termination pay leave taken in advance where the entitlement for that leave has not yet accrued as at the date of termination.

O’Brien Plumbing Rowville may direct an employee to take annual leave if the employee has at least 8 weeks of annual leave accrued. This direction requires 28 days’ notice. The amount of annual leave the employee is directed to take will be no greater than 25% of the amount of leave accrued.

Rostered Day Off (RDO) Policy

O’Brien Plumbing Rowville work a 40-hour week therefore having a rostered day off for every four weeks worked. O’Brien Plumbing Rowville run a flexible RDO policy that allows employees to bank the RDO to use when they choose rather than on a set calendar monthly basis.

Annual Leave and RDO Request Procedure

1. Annual leave and/or RDO request approval is at the discretion of the direct line manager and Managing Director – Josh Butler.

2. The following notice periods are required for all annual leave / RDO requests:

Length of Annual Leave / RDO Notice Period

1 day 1 week

2 – 4 days 2 weeks

5 days and greater 3 weeks

3. Annual leave requests should be made via email to the Office Coordinator.

4. The employee will receive either an approval or decline of the request by email within 48 hours.

5. The Office Coordinator will schedule the annual leave in the Simpro schedule and advise the bookkeeper via email for payroll adjustments.

6. Where the staff member requesting leave has a negative annual leave balance, or the leave would create a negative leave balance, it is at the discretion of the Managing Director to either approve the negative balance, require unpaid leave or deny the request.

7. June and December are extremely busy months for O’Brien Plumbing Rowville and therefore any leave requests during this time will need to be assessed based on the needs of the business and the requirement of the leave.

Personal/Carer’s Leave

Employees are entitled to 10 days of paid personal/carers leave for each 12 months of continuous service with O’Brien Plumbing Rowville.

Personal/Carer’s leave will accrue progressively throughout the year and will accumulate from year to year.

Employees are entitled to paid and unpaid leave in the case of personal illness or injury, or to provide care or support to a member of the employee's immediate family or household who requires care or support because of:

● a personal illness, or injury, of the member, or

● an unexpected emergency.

All employees must notify their supervisor by telephone of their absence prior to their daily commencement time or as soon as reasonably practicable. Unexpected absences impact the operation of business units. Particularly, in instances where the notice is given after the normal start time.

The company requires notice of unscheduled absences is in accordance with the following direction:

1. That notification be a soon as reasonably practicable once becoming aware that you will not be able to attend work; in most instances this should be prior to your normal start time,

2. Notification needs to be in the form of a phone call to me; texting is not appropriate. This is because I will want to ask about expected return to work and any operational issues that may need to be confirmed in relation to the scheduled worked,

3. That you will be requesting a medical certificate for each absence in relation to personal or carer’s leave,

4. That annual leave will not be approved for use in relation to personal or carer’s leave claims without the prompt production of a medical certificate,

5. Annual leave will not otherwise be approved where it is requested on the day or retrospectively, Failure to follow the above lawful and reasonable direction may result in a disciplinary outcome including a warning. Repeated breaches may ultimately result in termination of employment

Personal/carer’s leave will not be paid in advance.

Evidence, including a medical certificate, is required for more than 2 days absence, or where the employer otherwise requests one.

▪ Note: O’Brien Plumbing Rowville has no obligation to accept wholly unhelpful medical certificates as evidence of illness. Where appropriate, O’Brien Plumbing Rowville may request further information.

The company will request a medical examination, conducted by a Registered Medical Practitioner, where:

● there is a reasonable doubt that an employee is able to perform duties in relation to the safety and well being of themselves and/or colleagues, or

● there is reasonable doubt that the employee is absent due to illness. The cost of such a medical examination will be met by the company.

Where an employee takes a period of paid personal/carer’s leave, the O’Brien Plumbing Rowville will pay the employee at the employee’s all­purpose rate of pay for the employee’s ordinary hours of work in that period

.

Unpaid Carer’s Leave

All employees are entitled to 2 days of unpaid carer’s leave for each permissible occasion when a member of the employee’s immediate family or household requires care or support due to personal illness, injury or emergency.

An employee may take unpaid carer’s leave for a particular permissible occasion as:

▪ a single continuous period of up to 2 days; or

▪ any separate periods to which the employee and O’Brien Plumbing Rowville agree.

An employee cannot take unpaid carer’s leave during a particular period if the employee could instead take paid personal/carer’s leave.

All employees must notify their supervisor by telephone of their absence prior to their daily commencement time or as soon as reasonably practicable. Unexpected absences impact the operation of business units; accordingly the company needs to make adjustments in order to meet customer demand.

Compassionate Leave

An employee is entitled to 2 days of compassionate leave for each permissible occasion when a member of the employee’s immediate family or household:

▪ contracts or develops a personal illness that poses a serious threat to his or her life; or

▪ sustains a personal injury that poses a serious threat to his or her life; or

▪ dies.

An employee may take compassionate leave as:

▪ a single continuous period of 2 days; or

▪ 2 separate periods of 1 day each; or

▪ any separate periods to which the employee and O’Brien Plumbing Rowville agree.

If the permissible occasion is the contraction or development of a personal illness, or the sustaining of a personal injury, the employee may take the compassionate leave for that occasion at any time while the illness or injury persists.

If an employee, other than a casual employee, takes a period of compassionate leave, O’Brien Plumbing Rowville will pay the employee at the employee’s all­purpose rate of pay for the employee’s ordinary hours of work in the period.

Long Service Leave (LSL)

Long service leave is an entitlement granted to employees for ‘long service’ to O’Brien Plumbing Rowville.

O’Brien Plumbing Rowville may direct employees who are eligible to take LSL by giving them 3 months’ notice of the date on which the employee must take at least 4 weeks LSL.

The period of long service leave is extended by any public holiday or holidays falling during the period of long service leave.

Community service Leave

An employee who engages in an eligible community service activity is entitled to be absent from his or her employment for a period if:

(a) the period consists of one or more of the following:

▪ time when the employee engages in the activity;

▪ reasonable travelling time associated with the activity;

▪ reasonable rest time immediately following the activity; and

(b) unless the activity is jury service—the employee’s absence is reasonable in all the circumstances.

Each of the following is an eligible community service activity:

(a) jury service (including attendance for the purpose of jury selection) that is required by or under a law of the Commonwealth or State; and

(b) carrying out a voluntary emergency management activity (e.g. SES)

If an employee is absent because of jury service in relation to a particular jury service summons for a period, or a number of periods, of more than 10 days in total, O’Brien Plumbing Rowville is only required to pay the employee for the first 10 days of absence (this payment is the employee’s base rate of pay minus any contribution of jury service pay).

O’Brien Plumbing Rowville may require the employee to give evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person:

▪ that the employee has taken all necessary steps to obtain any amount of jury service pay to which the employee is entitled; and

▪ of the total amount (even if it is a nil amount) of jury service pay that has been paid, or is payable, to the employee for the period.