Leave policy
Audience
This policy applies to all employees of the Department of Education (the department).
Purpose
This policy provides key principles for the management and use of leave by employees across the department.
Policy statement
The department is required to provide employees with paid and unpaid leave in accordance with legislative provisions and is committed to doing so in a way that supports employees to manage their work and personal commitments.
Principles
- Employees can apply to access both paid and unpaid leave in accordance with their applicable industrial instrument. Employees engaged on a part-time arrangement will have all applicable leave entitlements calculated on a pro-rata basis.
- Employees are encouraged to use their leave entitlements throughout their employment in order to maintain a healthy balance between work, recreation, family and other commitments.
- Requests to access both paid and unpaid planned leave will be considered in a timely, fair and reasonable manner.
- The department may take appropriate disciplinary action when an employee is absent from work, without approved leave, and without providing reasonable justification for the unexplained absence.
- Extended Special Leave may be granted in special circumstances; however, an application for extended special leave, for the purpose of departmental employees engaged under the Teaching in State Education Award – State 2016 to undertake work in a non-state school, will not be granted.
Requirements
All employees
- Follow processes and requirements outlined in the Employee leave procedure.
- Consider operational requirements of the work unit when applying for planned leave.
- Maintain open and honest communication with their manager, principal, supervisor or nominated contact point regarding planned and unplanned leave.
Additional requirements for managers, principals and supervisors
- Consider all leave requests in a timely manner and approve if the leave applied for is appropriate for the circumstances and that entitlement exists.
- Consider planned leave requests in a fair and equitable manner, taking into consideration operational requirements of the work unit.
- Consider human rights when making decisions about leave requests.
- Facilitate open, supportive and honest communications with employees regarding their planned and unplanned leave requests. Ensure requests for leave are only authorised by the appropriate delegated officer as outlined in the HR Delegations Manual (DoE employees only).
- Ensure employees are aware of the confidential professional counselling services available to all employees, through the department’s Employee Assistance provider, as appropriate.
Definitions
|
Term
|
Definition
|
|
Employee
(Public sector employee)
|
A person is a public sector employee if they are employed under s12(1) of the
Public Sector Act 2022 (Qld) as:
- a public service officer; or
- a general employee; or
- a temporary employee.
|
|
General employee
|
A general employee is someone who is employed to perform work of a type not ordinarily performed by a public service officer. The basis of employment may be:
- permanent (full-time or part-time); or
- temporary for a fixed term (full-time or part-time); or
- on a casual basis.
|
|
Industrial instrument
|
An instrument that has legal application with respect to minimum entitlements to those employees covered within its scope. This includes Awards, Certified Agreements and Directives.
|
|
Nominated contact point
|
The person or point (e.g. message bank) to be contacted in the event of an absence.
|
|
Pro-rata
|
Proportionate allocation of entitlement based on an employee’s hours of work.
|
|
Public service officer
|
A public service officer is a public service employee mentioned in s13 of the
Public Sector Act 2022 (Qld), and includes a person employed as:
- an officer;
- a senior officer;
- a senior executive; or
- a chief executive.
|
|
Temporary employee
|
An employee engaged to perform work on a temporary basis whether full-time or part-time.
|
Legislation
Delegations/Authorisations
Other resources
Superseded versions
Previous seven years shown. Minor version updates not included.
1.0 Leave policy