Increasing annual leave to five weeks would cost employers less than you might think
Five weeks annual leave is an idea whose time may have come.
A decade ago, a Productivity Commission inquiry into Australia's industrial relations system, recommended governments periodically «examine whether there are any grounds for extending the existing 20 days of paid annual leave».
Now, with the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association pushing for an extra week of annual leave for 1.3 million retail and fast food workers, the issue may be about to get a serious hearing.
Employees doing continuous shift work — including nurses and firefighters — are already able to take five weeks of annual leave.
Recent deals between Ikea, Apple, Bunnings and Big W and staff have added to the number of workers with another week of annual leave.
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But for most of us in jobs with annual leave, four weeks is what we get.
Annual leave has remained unchanged since 1974
Historically, extra annual leave has been an important way for workers to secure their share of the gains from productivity growth — in addition to increases in wages and other benefits.
Most workers won the right to a week's annual leave in 1941 following a case brought to the Commonwealth Arbitration Commission by the Amalgamated Engineers Union.
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The entitlement was progressively increased, reaching four weeks in 1974.
Since then, however, annual leave has remained
