It can often be difficult to know how to calculate what leave is due to part timers who have no fixed hours or days of work. If you do not calculate leave correctly you can end up with a personal grievance and a huge liability if leave is due but not taken. In one situation an employee worked on a casual basis for many years but was given no holidays or holiday pay. This accumulated over time and had to all be paid at their current pay rate when the employee finally made a claim.

Annual Leave

Casual employees get paid for their holidays based on their average weekly earnings over the 12 months prior to the holiday. You should add up all of their earnings over the 12 months and divide that by 52 to calculate what you must pay them per week for the holiday.

Public Holidays

Employees get paid for any Public Holidays that fall on a day they would normally work. This is calculated by looking at the average hours worked on the same preceding 4 days as the holiday e.g. if on a Monday the preceding 4 Mondays. If the employee regularly works on the day of the week the holiday falls on then they are entitled to holiday pay. If they have no entitlement to work and/or have not worked that day of the week, then they do not get paid for the holiday.

Sick Leave

After 6 months employees are entitled to a minimum of 5 days sick leave per annum. Employees are paid their normal rate of pay for the day. This is what they would have earned if they had been at work. For casual staff where you cannot determine what they would normally get then if they work at least 10 hours per week on average or 40 hours per month they are paid at the average pay over the preceding 4 weeks divided by the days/part days worked in that period.

As an example if an employee has worked 10 hours (2 days) in a week, then 20 (4 days), then 16 (3 days) and 10 (2 days) you divide the 56 hours by the 11 days. This equates to 5.09 hours per day to be paid at their normal rate of pay for the days off sick.

Bereavement Leave

After 6 months employees are entitled to 3 days leave for the death of a spouse, parent, child, brother, sister, grandparent, grandchild or spouse’s parent and 1 day for other bereavements accepted by the employer. Employees are paid their normal rate of pay for the day. This is what they would have earned if they had been at work. For casual staff where you cannot determine what they would normally get then if they work at least 10 hours per week on average or 40 hours per month they are paid at the average pay over the preceding 4 weeks divided by the days/part days worked in that period.

If an employee wants three days off and only one or two of those three are “normally” worked then they are paid at their normal rate of pay for the days normally worked and at zero for the days not normally worked.

As you can see getting it right can be complicated and costly if you get it wrong.