How should an employer manage leave for employees in Australia?
Australia provides employees with a broad range of statutory leave entitlements designed to support employee wellbeing, family responsibilities and long-term workforce participation. Employers should ensure these entitlements are administered correctly to remain compliant.
Full-time employees are entitled to 4 weeks of paid annual leave for each year of service.
Annual leave:
Employees are entitled to 10 days of paid personal sick or carer's leave per year.
Key features include:
If an employee has exhausted their paid personal leave entitlement, they may be eligible for unpaid carer's leave.
Employees may take 2 days of unpaid carer's leave per occasion when a member of their immediate family or household requires care or support because of illness, injury or an unexpected emergency.
Eligible employees are entitled to up to 12 months of unpaid parental leave in connection with:
Parental leave may commence before the expected birth date and must generally be taken within the prescribed period following birth or adoption.
Employees may also be entitled to special maternity or special parental leave in certain circumstances, including pregnancy-related illness or stillbirth.
The Australian Government provides a parental leave payment scheme for eligible employees.
For children born or adopted from 1 July 2025, eligible carers may receive up to 24 weeks of Parental Leave Pay to share as a family. This benefit is administered by Services Australia and is paid at the National Minimum Wage.
Employees are entitled to 2 days of compassionate leave per occasion.
Compassionate leave may be taken when:
There is no annual cap on compassionate leave, as it applies on a per-event basis.
Employees may take community service leave for qualifying activities such as:
Employees undertaking jury service are generally entitled to payment for the first 10 days, while emergency management leave is generally unpaid.
Employees are entitled to 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave.
This leave may be used where an employee needs to take action to deal with the impact of family or domestic violence and it is impractical to do so outside working hours.
The entitlement does not accumulate from year to year.
Employees may take 2 days of unpaid pre-adoption leave to attend interviews, examinations or appointments required to obtain approval to adopt a child.
Long Service Leave (LSL) is a statutory entitlement that recognises extended service with the same employer.
While entitlements vary between Australian states and territories, a standard full-time employee typically becomes entitled to approximately 8.667 weeks of paid leave after 10 years of continuous service.
Employers should review the specific Long Service Leave legislation applicable in the state or territory in which the employee works.
If this article raised questions or highlighted areas you’d like to understand better, let’s talk.Our team can walk through the details, implications, and practical considerations for your business.
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