Get your hands off MyLeave
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- Published: Tuesday, 13 October 2026 15:04
MyLeave was the hardest fought achievement, the issue occupying more time of the Commission in mediation than any other, and a qualitative change in the industry providing a new flexibility for employees. It’s now all about cooperation. The Commission broke LGNSW’s obsession with restricting MyLeave if you had more than eight weeks annual leave. That’s a different and unrelated issue.
LGNSW has to stop listening to their advisory group of misery from HR and GMs.
It’s intended to break the mandatory restraints imposed over the years by reactionary HR/P&C functionaries and general managers - who much prefer it all to be black-and-white, founded on managerial prerogative and where everything requires the employer’s approval. The unimaginative and reluctant hate discretion - clearly they’re not prepared to back their own judgement.
We knew at the time there’d be many disappointed and hostile. Bit by bit we are dealing with those councils getting them to understand that the world has changed, the shackles are removed, a more cooperative approach to this form of leave has been imposed.
Leaving aside the transitional arrangements, this is the operational part of the clause in its entirety:
L. MYLEAVE
(i) Subject to this clause, an employee (other than a casual) shall be entitled to 1 week of MyLeave at ordinary pay during each year of service. MyLeave becomes available upon commencement or on each anniversary following the making of this Award.
(ii) MyLeave may be used by an employee for any purpose or activity and may be taken flexibly, in blocks of single or multiple hours or single or consecutive days.
(iii) Where practicable an employee must provide the Employer with advance notice of the intention to take MyLeave. Where an employee seeks to take more than 1 day of MyLeave consecutively, the Employer and employee shall agree on the period, provided that such agreement shall not be unreasonably refused.
(iv) MyLeave does not accumulate or accrue from year to year and is not paid out on termination of employment.
(v) An employee who is entitled to MyLeave can elect in writing that some, or all, of their unused MyLeave days be converted to sick leave (before it expires). Once such an election has been made it cannot be reversed.
(vi) Subject to exceptional circumstances, an employee’s election to convert unused MyLeave days to sick leave must occur at least a month prior to the employee’s anniversary date.
(a) To facilitate the election in subclause (v) an Employer is required once a year to provide:
(1) Notification (unless it is otherwise readily accessible) of an employee’s anniversary date; and
(2) Notification of the right to elect to convert unused MyLeave days.
(viii) The transitional MyLeave entitlements referred to in subclause (vii) do not accrue and expire upon an employee’s first anniversary following the making of the Award.
It’s a beautiful clause introducing a more cooperative arrangement in the workplace - it can be used for any purpose, if it’s practical you must provide advance notice, if it is impractical, you don’t, and if you want to take more than one day consecutively you are required to “agree on the period with your boss - providing that “such agreement shall not be unreasonably refused”!
Be kind to HR/P&C, they’re on a learning curve at the moment. It’s a novelty to have discretion instead of someone making the decision for you.
The Award Implementation Committee will focus on pulling Councils into line which are not doing the right thing. Please let us know if you think your council is doing the wrong thing, and we will put them on the list.