Are any of your employees able to cash out annual leave?

Under the National Employment Standards, employees not covered by an award or agreement may agree with their employer to cash out annual leave, as long as 4 weeks’ leave balance remains. Unless specified in the relevant award, award covered employees do not have this entitlement. For all employees that are able to and agree to cash out annual leave, the following conditions apply:

• the employee must retain an entitlement to least four weeks paid annual leave
• there is a separate agreement in writing on each occasion that leave is cashed out
• the employer must not exert undue influence or undue pressure on an employee to agree to cash out an amount of annual leave
• the employee must be paid at least the full amount that would have been payable had the annual leave been taken.