Paid Personal / Carer's Leave

The Full Federal Court of Australia handed down a decision on 21 August 2019 in Mondelez Australia Pty Ltd v AMWU [2019] FCAFC 138(“Mondelez”), that deals with how paid personal / carer’s leave is accumulated under the National Employment Standards under the Fair Work Act 2009.

The Law as it stands after the decision in Mondelez entitles full-time and part-time employees to 10 working days of paid personal / carer’s leave for each year of employment. The leave must be calculated in working days not hours. A working day was defined in Mondelez as being the portion of a 24 hour period that an employee would normally work. Therefore, if an employee’s ordinary hours of work are 8 hours in a 24 hour period then the working day for the employee would be 8 hours. When an employee takes a paid day of personal / carer’s leave, the employer deducts a day from the employee’s accrued leave balance.

The above decision is the current position of the Law in Australia. The Australian Government and Mondelez Australia Pty Ltd have applied to the High Court seeking leave to appeal the decision. Depending on the outcome of the appeal, the above decision is the current Law in relation to paid personal / carer’s leave for full time and part time employees.