ACTU pushes Albanese government to increase annual leave to five weeks
Unions are pressing the Albanian government to increase the minimum annual leave level for Australian workers from four weeks to five weeks.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has entered into a new bid with the federal government to increase annual leave by another week, giving Australians five weeks off instead of four.
The ACTU is pushing for full-time workers’ annual leave to be increased to five weeks and shift workers to six weeks; This would be the first increase in half a century.
Annual leave was introduced in Australia in 1906, but did not become widespread for workers in 1935. It wasn’t until 1974 that four weeks of paid leave was adopted across the country.
Many European countries, including Denmark, Iceland and Norway, have since increased their annual leave allowances.
Giving staff an extra week of annual leave will increase employment costs by 2 per cent, but the union said this would be offset by a reduction in costs due to employee turnover, stress and injury-related sick days.
While some businesses such as Ikea and Bunnings have already adopted five weeks of annual leave, the federal government will need to sign off on the agreement before it is adopted nationwide.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus said Australians’ workload had increased in recent years, leaving them more likely to suffer from burnout and stress-related illnesses.
“Australia should increase annual leave for full-time workers to at least five weeks. Australians work relatively long hours and this has only increased over time, but the four-week annual leave standard was set 50 years ago,” he said.
He explained that adding an extra week of annual leave could help “reduce stress and burnout”, which particularly affects workers aged 18-24.
“Australian workers already do an average of four-and-a-half weeks of extra unpaid work each year. Taking one of those weeks back is fair and reasonable. It would mean a better-rested and happier workforce,” he said.
“Young workers aged 18 to 24 need to see this burden begin to ease. They do the most unpaid work – an average of 6.4 weeks of unpaid work for their employers each year.”
While Australians have increased their workloads in recent years, there is a growing “productivity gap” and workers’ wages have not increased in more than 25 years, he said.
He said the increase in annual leave would solve this problem.
“The average Australian would need to see real wage growth of 10 per cent to make up the difference between productivity improvements and real wage growth since 2000,” he said.
“An extra week of annual leave could help reduce this gap.”
Ms McManus said European countries such as Austria, France and Spain had increased leave and were “already recognizing the importance of rested, healthier workers” and were “some of the most productive and competitive economies in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)”.
“It’s time for Australia to catch up; our annual leave has been frozen for four weeks since the mid-1970s, half a century ago,” he said.
“The last time annual leave increased in Australia most workers were not alive.”
