Forced to take Annual leave...is it legal?

[GOTMYN]

Hey guys, I've been working for the same company for about 7 years now, Full Time as a Maintenance Fitter.

Anyway, these guys specialize in Projects and contract Maintenance, and my last Project lasted 5 years at the one site, anyway, that ended about 2 months ago, and since then, they have demanded i take my annual leave as they are finding it hard to source any work.

I agreed to take a week, but it has now blown out and after discussions about them paying me Stand By instead of me using up all of my leave, I now have zero annual leave left, and they are telling me that I will not be payed while at home waiting for a job???? Is this legal?

It is almost Christmas, and I will be out of work, without pay, while still being a permanent employee with this company....

I have other options for work, but is this legal? are they allowed to do this to me and my Family? why not make me Redundant!! At least I will heave some money to survive!!

Let me know your thoughts, if any, before I argue my ass off with them!!

[CSP]

Perfectly legal.

[GOTMYN]

Perfectly legal.

Isn't it an employers obligation to supply work to a full time employee?
and if they can not, it is up to them to pay wages until they can?
If not, what kind of motivation is that towards them trying to place me into another position?? None!!

[wingwang99]

I do accounts, pays and things like that for a small company. I don't know a lot but as far as i'm aware they do not have to pay your annual leave if they you don't take it. Did you take any of your leave during the 5 years? And if not you should be able to be paid for all of the annual leave that is legally owed to you. I would seriously check this out too

[50LTRv8]

Perfectly legal.

How is it legal to force a staff member to take annual leave to the point where they have none left? The only point my employer can force me to take leave is if I have over 320 hours leave in the bank. If I worked for you I know what I would be saying. It is not the workers responsibility to find projects, it is the employers.

I would start looking elsewhere.

[88GreenVN]

Depends on your AWA. if it says no pay when there is no work - your pay cheque is empty.

But I'm guessing you dont have an AWA to read.

[CSP]

If there is no work for the employee to do, the employer can stand down the employee without pay and it's perfectly legal.

This is why individual workplace agreements are the best option. You could have negotiated something into your agreement for periods like this. But I'm guessing you don't have one so just blame the Labor Government.

[GOTMYN]

Thanks guys, Unfortunately, i have no annual leave left, I had 130hrs, but over the last 6 weeks, they told me i had to take it, 2 days here, a week there... and I continually told them I did not choose to do this, but after last week with no work, they paid me my last 40hrs, now I have none for chrissy, and no work, and no pay!!

[CSP]

Bummer!

[88GreenVN]

Thanks guys, Unfortunately, i have no annual leave left, I had 130hrs, but over the last 6 weeks, they told me i had to take it, 2 days here, a week there... and I continually told them I did not choose to do this, but after last week with no work, they paid me my last 40hrs, now I have none for chrissy, and no work, and no pay!!

And the recession starts.........

[MagiTEK]

This is happening up here in townsville as well. I work for the meatworks up here and we have just shutdown our operation due to lack of cattle (and the inevitable wet season nth qld has every year). This means our production employees are out of work for approxiametly 3 months..

I guess the difference is we actually terminate them and re-employ them when we start up. Thus at least allowing them to claim centerlink or employment elsewhere (without being taxed to the tilt). However we dont employ them as full timers.. just casuals with full time benefits. or something along that line.

Its still a crock though. I know i personally wouldnt take a production job here.. Job security is too damn important for me.. Too many bills.. The commo being one of em

[50LTRv8]

If there is no work for the employee to do, the employer can stand down the employee without pay and it's perfectly legal.

This is why individual workplace agreements are the best option. You could have negotiated something into your agreement for periods like this. But I'm guessing you don't have one so just blame the Labor Government.

Maybe a union could have negotiated a fairer aggrement

[Troy711]

If there is no work for the employee to do, the employer can stand down the employee without pay and it's perfectly legal.

This is why individual workplace agreements are the best option. You could have negotiated something into your agreement for periods like this. But I'm guessing you don't have one so just blame the Labor Government.

With Sarahs work they temporarliy stand down employees over the school holiday period and they don't get paid unless they have leave.

[CSP]

Maybe a union could have negotiated a fairer aggrement

Bwaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the best laugh of the day buddy!

[50LTRv8]

So how in hell are you supposed to live without wages?

Since your such an inspiration to all of us.

[CSP]

So how in hell are you supposed to live without wages?

Since your such an inspiration to all of us.

It's called saving for a rainy day...

Since leaving Year 12 in 1997, I have had two lots of significant unemployment. Once for 3 months and another time for 4 months.

Both times I didn't need any handouts, government assistance or deferred loans. My lifestyle didn't change! Why? Because you should, to a certain extent, plan for the unexpected.

[GOTMYN]

As I said, i do have another job I can go to as soon as I choose, (Rainy Day) but I am wanting to know if what they have done was worth arguing, Obviously a full time job these days is no guarantee that you will be paid every week......What are we coming to?????

[50LTRv8]

It's called saving for a rainy day...

Since leaving Year 12 in 1997, I have had two lots of significant unemployment. Once for 3 months and another time for 4 months.

Both times I didn't need any handouts, government assistance or deferred loans. My lifestyle didn't change! Why? Because you should, to a certain extent, plan for the unexpected.

and there it is, all knowledgeable and thaughtful, thanks for the insight and I glad you still have your lifestyle too

[burnz]

Hey guys, I've been working for the same company for about 7 years now, Full Time as a Maintenance Fitter.

Anyway, these guys specialize in Projects and contract Maintenance, and my last Project lasted 5 years at the one site, anyway, that ended about 2 months ago, and since then, they have demanded i take my annual leave as they are finding it hard to source any work.

I agreed to take a week, but it has now blown out and after discussions about them paying me Stand By instead of me using up all of my leave, I now have zero annual leave left, and they are telling me that I will not be payed while at home waiting for a job???? Is this legal?

It is almost Christmas, and I will be out of work, without pay, while still being a permanent employee with this company....

I have other options for work, but is this legal? are they allowed to do this to me and my Family? why not make me Redundant!! At least I will heave some money to survive!!

Let me know your thoughts, if any, before I argue my ass off with them!!

if you havernt signed any awa's and/or were employed before awa's were introduced.
the union has in placed that the employer must provide work for you and CANNOT force
you to use your leave.
if the employer has no work then the employer has the option to make redundant at two weeks per year every year redundancey with loading, or pay you to stay at home.
either way the employer "must" provide work for you.

[GOTMYN]

if you havernt signed any awa's and/or were employed before awa's were introduced.
the union has in placed that the employer must provide work for you and CANNOT force
you to use your leave.
if the employer has no work then the employer has the option to make redundant at two weeks per year every year redundancey with loading, or pay you to stay at home.
either way the employer "must" provide work for you.

Now that sounds more like it

What if I have been employed as a fitter, and they decide to downgrade me to a T/A (trades assistant) Wage but expect me to do the same Job??

They have offered me another project tonight, but said due to the lack of work they had to negotiate with the client and have dropped my pay by around $250 per week to an assistants hourly rate, I will still have to supply my own Tools and repair machines as required which a T/A certainly could not......... I didn't agree, am I being unreasonable?

[TVR-190]

a friend of mine works in a restaurant which had an incident with a fire, so all the full time staff were moved to the small store, obviously they were not all needed but they all still had to be paid full time wage

[minux]

Perfectly legal.

Ahh wrong, it is not perfectly legal at all.

An employer can direct an employee to take a period of annual leave if the employee has accrued:
-More than 1/13 of the number of nominal hours worked by the employee for the employer during the period of 104 weeks ending at the time the direction is given’.

For example, the employee would have accrued 8 weeks of annual leave during 104 weeks of service if working a 38
hour week.

The amount of annual leave that the employee is directed to take is less than, or equal to, ¼ of the amount of credited annual leave of the employee at the time that the direction is given’.
For example, out of the 8 weeks that the employee has accrued as per the above example, the employer is able to
direct the employee to take ¼ = 2 weeks.

Chrisso, you can take action against this, i know I would.

http://www.cciwa.com/getfile.aspx?Ty...ObjectID=24625

Check out that and contact them on the number below.(the above file is a PDF file. Also for the record, the unions had nothing to do with this)

[GOTMYN]

WooHoo...Minux your a legend!!

Thanks everyone, I am gunna have a crack!!

[burnz]

Now that sounds more like it

What if I have been employed as a fitter, and they decide to downgrade me to a T/A (trades assistant) Wage but expect me to do the same Job??

They have offered me another project tonight, but said due to the lack of work they had to negotiate with the client and have dropped my pay by around $250 per week to an assistants hourly rate, I will still have to supply my own Tools and repair machines as required which a T/A certainly could not......... I didn't agree, am I being unreasonable?

when was your three month's tial up ???
IE when hired everybody's on a three month trial.

[burnz]

Ahh wrong, it is not perfectly legal at all.

An employer can direct an employee to take a period of annual leave if the employee has accrued:
-More than 1/13 of the number of nominal hours worked by the employee for the employer during the period of 104 weeks ending at the time the direction is given’.

For example, the employee would have accrued 8 weeks of annual leave during 104 weeks of service if working a 38
hour week.

The amount of annual leave that the employee is directed to take is less than, or equal to, ¼ of the amount of credited annual leave of the employee at the time that the direction is given’.
For example, out of the 8 weeks that the employee has accrued as per the above example, the employer is able to
direct the employee to take ¼ = 2 weeks.

Chrisso, you can take action against this, i know I would.

http://www.cciwa.com/getfile.aspx?Ty...ObjectID=24625

Check out that and contact them on the number below.(the above file is a PDF file. Also for the record, the unions had nothing to do with this)

nice find minux.