Plain English

Leave & employment glossary.

Australian leave law has its own vocabulary. Here is every term used across this site, defined in plain English and tied to the National Employment Standards and the Fair Work Act 2009. Where a term has its own calculator or guide, follow the link for the full detail.

Leave types

Leave types.

Annual leave: Paid time off for rest and recreation. Full-time and part-time employees accrue 4 weeks per year under the NES (Fair Work Act s.87).
Personal leave: Paid leave for when you are ill or injured. Part of the combined 10-day personal/carer's leave entitlement (s.96).
Carer's leave: Leave to care for an immediate family or household member who is unwell or has an emergency. Drawn from the same 10-day pool as sick leave.
Sick leave: The common name for paid personal leave used when you are unwell. Ten days a year combined with carer's leave.
Compassionate leave: 2 days of leave each time an immediate family or household member dies or develops a life-threatening illness or injury. Also called bereavement leave (ss.104-106).
Bereavement leave: Another name for compassionate leave: 2 days per occasion, paid for full-time and part-time employees, unpaid for casuals.
Long service leave: Extended paid leave for long-term service, set by each state and territory Act rather than the NES. Usually triggered at 10 years (7 in VIC and the ACT).
Parental leave: Up to 12 months of unpaid leave under the NES, plus the right to request a further 12 months, for the birth or adoption of a child.
Paid Parental Leave (PPL): The government payment at the National Minimum Wage: 24 weeks now, rising to 26 weeks from 1 July 2026. Separate from any employer-paid scheme.
Family and domestic violence leave: 10 days of paid leave each year for every employee, including casuals, to deal with the impact of family or domestic violence (ss.106A-106E).
Community service leave: Leave for jury duty and voluntary emergency-management activities. Jury duty includes make-up pay for the first 10 days (ss.108-112).
Unpaid leave: Leave without pay, taken by agreement with your employer. It usually does not break continuous service but does not accrue other leave.
Public holiday: A gazetted day when employees can be absent without losing pay. Penalty rates often apply if you work it (s.114).

Pay and loadings

Pay and loadings.

Leave loading: An extra 17.5% paid on top of base wages while taking annual leave. Applies only where an award or agreement requires it.
Casual loading: A 25% premium on every hour a casual works, paid in lieu of annual leave, paid personal leave and notice entitlements.
Base rate of pay: Your ordinary hourly or weekly pay, excluding loadings, penalty rates, allowances, overtime and bonuses. Most leave is paid at this rate.
Ordinary time earnings (OTE): What you earn for ordinary hours of work, including some loadings and allowances. It is the base on which superannuation is calculated.
Penalty rate: A premium rate for unsociable hours: weekends, public holidays, late nights and early mornings. Set by the relevant award.
Cash-out: Trading accrued annual leave for a payment instead of taking the time off. Allowed by some awards, with limits (you must keep at least 4 weeks).
National Minimum Wage: The lowest hourly rate an award-free or agreement-free employee can be paid, reviewed annually by the Fair Work Commission.

Service and eligibility

Service and eligibility.

Pro-rata: Calculated in proportion to your hours. A 19-hour part-timer accrues exactly half the leave of a 38-hour full-timer.
Continuous service: Unbroken employment with the same employer. Paid leave counts towards it; most unpaid leave pauses accrual without breaking continuity.
Ordinary hours: Your regular weekly hours under your contract or award, typically 38 for full-time. Leave is accrued and paid against these hours.
Accrual: How leave builds up over time. A full-time employee earns about 2.923 hours of annual leave for each week worked.
Immediate family: For leave purposes: a spouse, de facto partner, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild or sibling, including step and in-law relations.
Full-time employee: An employee working an average of 38 ordinary hours a week, with full access to paid leave entitlements.
Part-time employee: An employee with regular hours below full-time, who accrues paid leave on a pro-rata basis.
Casual employee: An employee with no firm advance commitment to ongoing work. Receives casual loading instead of most paid leave.
Probation period: An initial trial period set by the employer. Leave still accrues from day one; probation does not change NES entitlements.
Shift worker: An employee defined by an award or agreement as a shiftworker, who may be entitled to a fifth week of annual leave.

Law and instruments

Law and instruments.

National Employment Standards (NES): The 11 minimum entitlements every national-system employee receives, set by the Fair Work Act 2009.
Fair Work Act 2009: The federal law governing most Australian workplaces, including the NES and the modern award system.
Modern award: An industry or occupation instrument that sits on top of the NES, setting minimum pay and conditions. There are over 120.
Enterprise agreement: A workplace agreement negotiated between an employer and employees that replaces the relevant award, but cannot reduce the NES.
Fair Work Commission: The national workplace tribunal that sets minimum wages, makes awards and resolves disputes.
Fair Work Ombudsman: The agency that educates and enforces compliance with the Fair Work Act, and the primary public source for entitlement information.
Portable long service leave: Industry schemes (mainly construction) where long service leave accrues across employers rather than with one, via a state authority.

Termination and notice

Termination and notice.

Notice of termination: The minimum warning an employer must give before ending employment, from 1 to 5 weeks depending on service and age (s.117).
Pay in lieu of notice: A payment covering the notice period, made when an employer ends employment without requiring the employee to work it out.
Redundancy pay: A payment when a job is no longer required, on a sliding scale from 4 weeks at 1 year to 16 weeks at 9+ years (s.119).
Genuine redundancy: A redundancy that is truly because the role is no longer needed and consultation obligations were met. Affects tax-free treatment.
Final pay: Everything owed when employment ends: outstanding wages, accrued annual leave, any LSL payout, plus notice or redundancy where applicable.

Time-off arrangements

Time-off arrangements.

Time off in lieu (TOIL): Paid time off taken instead of being paid for overtime, by written agreement under the relevant award or enterprise agreement.
Rostered day off (RDO): A paid day off earned by working slightly longer ordinary hours across a cycle, common in construction and manufacturing.
Banked hours: Extra hours accumulated and saved to take as paid time off later, where an award or agreement allows it.

Definitions are general information aligned with the National Employment Standards and the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth). Your award or enterprise agreement may add to these entitlements. For your situation, use the relevant calculator or check the Fair Work Ombudsman.