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Amount of annual leave

The annual leave year for all agricultural workers starts on 1 October and ends on 30 September the following year.

The amount of annual leave you can take depends on the number of days you work each week.

Guaranteed overtime hours can be included when you calculate the number of days you work each week. Guaranteed overtime is overtime you must work under your employment contract. You would be paid for this overtime even if there were no work for you to do. Any other overtime that you work can't be counted.

Below is the annual leave entitlement for workers who work a complete annual leave year for the same employer.

Different working patterns

If you work a different number of days each week you need to calculate your annual leave entitlement separately.

Step one: work out the number of weeks from the start of the annual leave year to the day immediately before you start your holiday ('the period')

Step two: work out the number of 'qualifying days' in the period, which are the number of days you worked basic hours or guaranteed overtime or took:

• annual leave
• other agricultural leave
• statutory ordinary adoption leave
• statutory ordinary maternity leave
• statutory paternity leave
• sick leave (whether paid or not)

Step three: divide the number of 'qualifying days' (from step two) by the number of weeks in 'the period' (from step one). This gives you the number of days you worked each week

Step four: work out your annual leave entitlement on the above table

Incomplete leave years

If you have not been employed by the same employer for an entire leave year you will need to calculate your annual leave differently.

Step one: use the table above to work out what your annual leave would have been for a complete year

Step two: work out the number of weeks you have worked continuously for your employer in the annual leave year

Step three: divide the number of weeks you have worked continuously by 52

Step four: multiply your number of days' annual leave (from step one) by the answer to step three

This gives you your reduced annual leave entitlement.

If you leave an employer during a leave year and you have outstanding annual leave your employer should pay you for this. If you have taken more annual leave than you have built up, your employer can deduct this from your last pay cheque.

Taking holiday

You can take your holiday at any time during your leave year, but your employer must have agreed to it. Your employer must let you take two weeks of your annual leave on consecutive days between 1 April to 30 September in the same year. This means that you may take up to two weeks of your holiday in one block between April and September.

Your employer can tell you when you should take your annual leave and may require that you take at least two weeks between 1 October and 31 March in the same annual leave year.

Bank and public holidays

Public holidays are included in your annual leave entitlement. These are proportional for workers working four days or less per week.

If a public holiday falls on a day you normally work, then either:

• your employer can tell you not to work and treat the day as annual leave
• if your employer does need you to work, you should be paid overtime for the hours you worked (the day remains as annual leave to be taken in the future)

Buy-out of annual leave

You can agree with your employer for them to 'buy-out' your annual leave. This means that you are entitled to both holiday pay and the appropriate overtime rate for the hours worked on the 'bought-out' day.

There are a maximum number of days that your employer can buy-out from you.

The following conditions also apply:

• your employer must record in writing any agreements to buy-out each day of annual leave
• they must keep the record for three years after that annual leave year
• if you do not work as agreed on a day of bought out annual leave, the day will be treated as annual leave

Bereavement leave

All agricultural workers are entitled to paid bereavement leave up to a maximum of four days. You are entitled to this after the death of a member of your family. This could have been a parent, guardian, child, spouse, brother, sister, grandparent or grandchild or other person that you had a close relationship with.

Where to get help

If you need further advice on your rights as an agricultural worker you can contact the Pay and Work Rights Helpline, or complete their online enquiry form.

• Pay and Work Rights general enquiry form Opens new window

• Pay and Work Rights Helpline contact details