Payment for annual leave following parental leave
The Salvation Army (TSA) has two mains concerns with the framework for paying annual leave (AL) following parental leave. The two main concerns are:
(1) the current method of calculating payment for AL following parental leave is difficult for employees to understand; and
(2) it is unusual that the method of calculation of AL is included in a separate piece of legislation to the Holidays Act (Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987).
We believe it would be more logical to have the method of calculation within the Holidays Act.
TSA is supportive of the current parental leave entitlements but believe that the current entitlement of staff to accrue annual leave when they are on parental leave is something that should be reviewed.
When a staff member is on extended unpaid leave for reasons other than parental responsibilities, for example if an employee takes an unpaid sabbatical, the staff member does not accrue annual leave during the period of their absence. It seems unusual for the entitlement to annual leave to only arise when someone is on unpaid leave due to parental responsibilities rather than if someone is on unpaid leave for any other reason.
TSA believes that the Taskforce should consider what the rationale around employees earning annual leave during parental leave is and assess whether the government parental leave payments for some of this time affect the original ideas behind why annual leave accrues while on parental leave.