Annual leave under state/territory law

For employees not covered by the FW Act, annual leave entitlements are prescribed by the relevant state legislation. This includes public sector workers in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia (including, in some instances, local government employees) plus, in Western Australia, private sector employees whose employer is not a constitutional corporation. All employees in the Territories and Victoria (apart from a limited number of employees who are excluded form that State’s referral of legislative power) are covered by the FW Act.

Like the FW Act, state and territory legislation provides for a base entitlement of 4 weeks of paid annual leave for each year of service with the employer which accrues progressively over the course of the year and any unused leave carries over to the next year. Shift workers are similarly entitled to an additional one week’s paid annual leave each year.

The terminology used in the various state and territory legislation differs in certain respects, eg, some refer to “annual leave” whilst others refer to “annual holiday”, and some refer to “workers” and others to “employees”. Nevertheless, the key features of all five systems are essentially the same.

See Annual leave under state/territory law.