The push for a fifth week of annual leave is winning support from overworked staff but prompting warnings from HR leaders that SMEs could face serious staffing and productivity challenges if it goes ahead
Australian unions’ campaign to lift minimum annual leave entitlements has drawn mixed reactions from employers, with business leaders warning that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) could face significant workforce planning pressures if the proposal becomes law.
Australian Unions has launched a bid to increase minimum annual leave from four to five weeks for full-time workers, and from five to six weeks for regular shift workers. It would be the first increase in the national minimum standard since the mid‑1970s.
The push is underpinned by analysis from the Centre for Future Work, which finds Australian workers perform an average of 4.5 weeks of unpaid overtime each year, with 18–24-year-olds doing the most – around 6.4 weeks annually.
Unions argue that an extra week of annual leave would help workers reclaim at least some of that unpaid time and ease mounting work pressures.
ACTU Secretary Sally McManus said Australia’s four-week standard, introduced around 50 years ago, no longer reflects how long or how hard Australians work.
“Extra leave will decrease stress and burnout. Australian workers already do an extra four and a half weeks of unpaid work on average every year. Getting back one of these weeks is fair...
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