Fair Work Australia agrees to ‘cashing out’ of accrued annual leave for hospitality industry workers - Media Release

In a ‘win’ for the hotels and hospitality sector, the Fair Work Commission (FWC) yesterday released a decision that will allow the cashing out of accrued annual leave under the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2010 (“HIGA”).

The decision will also result in the Restaurant Industry Award 2010 being varied too.

The decision follows an application made by the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) to the FWC to enable the cashing out of annual leave. Cashing out has not been previously possible under the HIGA, despite employees repeatedly requesting AHA members to do so for personal reasons. The decision will result in the Hospitality Industry Award being varied to allow employees to cash out a maximum of two weeks’ paid annual leave in any 12 month period.

In the ruling, the Full Bench was not persuaded by the contentions advanced by the union parties that if granted, the claim would undermine the NES entitlement to leave and would be inconsistent with the encouragement of enterprise bargaining.

“The Full Bench noted that the evidence indicates that there is a significant demand for a provision which facilitates the cashing out of accrued leave. The Full Bench concluded that that the considerations in favour of inserting the model term into modern awards outweigh any potential reduction in the incentive to bargain about this issue.”

“We applaud the Full Bench for recognising the needs of hospitality workers,” said Mr Stephen Ferguson, CEO of AHA.” The ruling only applies to accrued annual leave, so workers will still be taking holidays during the year, but they will now be able to access accrued leave-pay to meet specific obligations when it suits them.”

The Commission will be releasing a draft clause to insert into the HIGA, with the clause expected to be finalised in the week of 13 July with its date of effect shortly after that.

Full judgement details: https://goo.gl/Xzz8wL The AHA will continue to seek practical amendments to the HIGA as part of the four year modern award review, including the reduction of penalty rates for Sundays and public holidays to encourage greater employment and reflect changes in the work environment since the awards were introduced 50 years ago.

Further information: Peter Hook Communications Manager, TAA Tel: +61 407 462213 Email: peter@tourismaccommodation.com.au

Source: Australian Hotels Association, June 12^th 2015