Annual leave

Annual leave is accumulated at 20 working days each year, or pro rata if you are employed on a part-time fraction. The leave accrued is listed on staff pay slips each fortnight, enabling staff to keep track of their annual leave entitlements. Leave accrued is printed in hours and can be converted to the relevant day entitlement of 7.35 hours per day for general/professional and trades and services staff or 7.6 hours per day for TAFE teaching and academic staff.

Public holidays which fall within the requested period of leave are not deducted from the staff member's leave balance.

If the period during which a staff member takes paid annual leave includes a period of any sick, carer's, compassionate leave, jury service or 'voluntary emergency management activities' pursuant to the Federation University Australia Union Enterprise Agreement (UEA) 2023-2026, the staff member is taken not to be on paid annual leave for the period of that other leave. This effectively means the staff member may have their annual leave re-credited.

If the staff member does not have sufficient paid leave of the type that will replace the annual leave, clarification will be required to determine if the staff member would like to take unpaid leave or not have their annual leave re-credited.

The usual evidentiary requirements concerning provision of medical certificates or statutory declarations still apply, where applicable, before re-crediting of annual leave may be granted.

A leave request must be submitted and approved prior to leave being taken.

Federation encourages staff to take annual leave each year

Staff are encouraged to take their annual leave entitlements each year to help promote a healthier workplace and enable staff to work to their best potential.

Staff members with leave accruals of more than six weeks, (pro rata for part-time staff) may be directed by the Executive Dean/Director, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor to take up to one quarter of that leave (two weeks). These dates should be negotiated and agreement should be reached. If no agreement is reached, the University may specify the dates that leave is to be taken and the employee must take the leave accordingly.

Academic and general/professional staff

Part-time general/professional staff on annualised hours, refer to the section on flexible working hours for additional information on annual leave.

Academic and general/professional staff on the 48/52 week year system, refer to the section on Purchase of Additional Leave - 48/52 Week Year.

TAFE teaching staff

TAFE teachers should plan to take their 20 days annual leave, documenting the nominated days of leave their annual work plan at the commencement of each year.

TAFE teachers should take annual leave within 15 months of it being accrued.

How to apply for annual leave

  • Fully understand your annual leave entitlements and options.
  • See links below and/or discuss your situation and plans confidentially with People and Culture and/or with your supervisor.
  • Login to Workday to submit your request or check your leave balance.

How to exchange annual leave

This opportunity is available only in January of each year.  To apply, please follow these steps in Workday:

  1. from the 'Menu' navigate to 'Requests' and select 'Create request'
  2. under 'Request type', choose 'All' and then select 'Exchange leave loading' – here you can review details of the exchange, and confirm your understanding of the terms and conditions before proceeding.

More information

For detailed information on leave entitlements and conditions for different staff categories, please refer to your relevant enterprise agreement:

Please note the 'provisions/entitlements' above do not apply to casual or sessional staff members.