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The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is advocating for an increase in annual leave for Australian workers, proposing an extension to five or six weeks. This initiative is based on research from the Centre of Future Work, which reveals that Australians perform over a month’s worth of unpaid labor annually.
The ACTU contends that this extra workload significantly contributes to heightened stress and burnout among employees, issues that need urgent attention.
Presently, most Australian workers are entitled to four to five weeks of annual leave each year.
ACTU Secretary Sally McManus emphasized, “Recapturing one of these weeks is both fair and necessary. It will lead to a more rested and content workforce.”
She pointed out that “many European nations, including France, Germany, and Austria, have already surpassed the four-week standard,” underscoring the global trend towards extended leave periods.
The ACTU will table the plans to the National Employment Standards (NES) as part of a parliamentary enquiry into the NES.
They say if the changes are approved, it will be the first increase in the minimum standard of annual leave since the 1970s.
McManus claims younger workers are doing the most unpaid work, and will benefit more from the changes.
“Younger workers – from 18 to 24 years old – most urgently need to see this burden start to lift. They are the ones doing the most unpaid work,” she said.
The ACTU also claim the gap between productivity and real wages has widened, but concede increasing annual leave by a week will add an extra two per cent to employment costs.
However, they claim it would not have a negative impact on the overall economy, because workers would be more to stay in their jobs and would be more productive due to a lower rate of burnout and other fatigue factors.
The Business Council of Australia has opposed the move, saying it wasn’t appropriate for such a policy to be mandated at a broader level without consideration for specific businesses.
“With weak productivity growth, inflation rising and living standards under pressure, this proposal does nothing to address these real challenges,” Business Council chief executive Bran Black claimed.
“This proposal assumes businesses can simply absorb the cost of extra leave without any improvement in productivity, effectively mandating that employers fund higher costs without addressing the underlying drivers of wage growth.
“We support flexible working arrangements and entitlements, but a one-size-fits-all government mandate is the wrong approach.”
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