Enterprise agreements are enterprise-level agreements between an employer and its employees regarding the terms of employment. The Commissioner found that enterprise agreements under the Fair Work Act did not take precedence over state or territory leave laws. As a result, there were illegal provisions in the approval agreement. Commitments are therefore needed to address this, she said. The problem for the employer (and for workers who wanted to pay for their long service leave) was that the NSW Long Service Leave Act prohibiting long-term leave, except in the event of termination of employment. In return, the Fair Work Act provided that enterprise agreements could not repeal the state or territory legislation on long-term leave; and national employment standards do not have a general standard for long-term leave. 29.6 Where an officer has completed at least five years of uninterrupted service, but less than ten years, and has ceased duty in accordance with the long-term leave policy, the officer is entitled to a reasonable amount of long service, on the basis of 2 months for 10 years of continuous service. The NES applies to all employees in Australia, regardless of national law, contract or enterprise agreement. “While long-term leave is an eligible matter for the purposes of inclusion in an enterprise agreement, it seems to me that the terms of an enterprise agreement for long-term leave are permitted only to the extent that otherwise these conditions would be permitted by the laws in force in the state or territory concerned.” Service with another employer that is covered by the agreement (including casual service before 2016) is considered a service to your current employer. The right to long-term leave (LSL) for Victorian nurses, midwives and nurses can vary considerably depending on employment as a casual or permanent employee, employer or professional. Changes to the general EBA in the public sector in 2016 and changes to Victorian long-term leave legislation in 2018 have resulted in significant improvements for members.
Casual registered nurses have the same 26 weeks for 15 years of eligibility as full-time and part-time nurses and midwives who are maintained as NES standards.