How to write a leave policy

To write a leave policy, list every leave type in one table with its entitlement, the notice you ask for, the evidence you may ask for and whether it is paid, then add short rules for how leave is requested and approved, what happens with shutdowns, large balances and cashing out, and a clause saying the policy never reduces an entitlement under the National Employment Standards, an award, an agreement or a contract. The law sets the entitlements; the policy sets the process.

What a leave policy can and cannot do

The National Employment Standards set the minimum leave entitlements for employees in the national system: annual leave, personal and carer’s leave, compassionate leave, family and domestic violence leave, parental leave, community service leave, long service leave and public holidays. Awards, enterprise agreements and contracts can add to them, never take away.

A policy’s job is the space the law leaves to the employer: how leave is requested, who approves it, how much notice is expected, what evidence can be asked for, and how the business handles shutdowns and balances. Those rules have to be reasonable, and they cannot cut across the entitlements themselves.

The leave policy example, for a fictional engineering firm, says this in its first section: it sits underneath the NES, the applicable award and each employment contract, and where any of those give a better entitlement, that entitlement prevails.

Every leave type in one table

The most useful page of a leave policy is a table. The example’s section 2 puts ten leave types in five columns, leave, entitlement, notice, evidence and paid, and calls the table the whole policy in one place. The answer to “do I need a certificate?” becomes a cell rather than a paragraph.

Some of its rows:

• Annual leave. Four weeks a year, five for shift workers; two weeks’ notice for leave over five days; no evidence; paid.
• Personal and carer’s leave. Ten days a year; notice as soon as practicable; a medical certificate or statutory declaration for two or more consecutive days, or a day either side of a public holiday; paid.
• Family and domestic violence leave. Ten days a year; evidence only on request and only if required, kept confidential; paid.
• Parental leave. Twelve months unpaid plus the government scheme; ten weeks’ notice; with a six week paid company top up.
• Study leave. Five days a year for approved courses, a company benefit rather than a legal entitlement.

The table at the end of this article sets out the minimum NES entitlement for each leave type next to the notice and evidence rules the example uses, so you can see where a policy follows the law and where it adds a company benefit.

Applying and approving

Say how leave is requested, who approves it and how fast. The example routes all leave through a leave request form. A manager approves leave of up to four weeks; leave of more than four weeks also needs a director. Employees get a written response within five working days, and a refusal states the reason and offers alternative dates.

It also defines unauthorised absence: absence that was not approved, or that continues past the approved dates without contact, is unpaid and handled under the conduct process.

A matching form makes the rules easy to follow. The leave request form example puts the notice periods beside the date fields and carries an upload for a certificate or statutory declaration.

Notice and evidence

Notice and evidence rules are where policies most often overreach. The Fair Work Ombudsman says employers can ask for evidence for as little as one day off, that an award or agreement can specify when evidence is required, and that the type of evidence must always be reasonable in the circumstances. An employee who does not give evidence when asked may not be paid for the leave.

The example sets its own trigger for personal leave, two consecutive days or a day beside a public holiday, and asks employees to notify by 8am. It adds a rule for the question managers ask most: if an employee falls ill during annual leave, the days convert to personal leave with evidence.

Keep family and domestic violence leave separate in tone. The Ombudsman says all employees, including casuals, can access 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave a year. The example asks for evidence only on request, only if required, and keeps it confidential.

Shutdowns, excess leave and cashing out

Directions to take leave come from awards and registered agreements, so the policy should state its rules and defer to them. The example has two:

• Excessive balances. Where an annual leave balance exceeds eight weeks, the manager meets the employee to agree a plan, and the company can direct leave on eight weeks’ written notice.
• Shutdown. A five day December shutdown, with at least four weeks’ notice.

Cashing out needs its own clause. The Fair Work Ombudsman says employees can cash out annual leave only where their award or agreement allows it; under most awards they must keep at least four weeks of leave afterwards, and there must be a signed written agreement setting out the amount, the payment and the date. The payment must equal what they would have been paid on leave.

The Ombudsman’s annual leave guidance also confirms the base entitlement: full time and part time employees get four weeks of annual leave a year based on their ordinary hours, and some shift workers get more under their award or agreement.

Keeping it lawful when awards change

Awards and laws change more often than policies are reviewed. The example handles this with a closing clause: the policy never reduces an entitlement under the NES, an award or a contract, and on any conflict the higher entitlement applies. That one sentence stops the document going stale the day an award clause moves.

Add the practical controls too. The example commits to showing leave balances on every payslip, answering payroll queries within five working days, putting a policy owner, effective date and review date on the cover, and keeping a version history of what changed and who approved it. The note on policy versus procedure explains why the form and the approval steps can change without rewriting the policy. A smaller business can fold the same table into its employee handbook, as that example does with five leave types, or reference the leave table in the employment contract; the guide to employee handbook sections shows where it sits.

Common mistakes

Restating the law and nothing else. Managers need the process: who approves, how fast, what evidence.

Evidence rules that are not reasonable. A certificate for every single day, for everyone, invites disputes.

Directions with no notice period. Shutdown and excess leave directions need the notice the award requires.

A cash out clause with no written agreement step. Most awards require one, signed, with at least four weeks left.

No priority clause. Without it, an outdated policy can appear to override a newer award entitlement.

Build it

A leave policy is mostly one large table and a set of numbered clauses. Documents here have 45 component types, and each document is classified before it is written, including a structure of flat, numbered or tabular; a five page policy is in the flow scale of two to five pages, so it does not carry a table of contents, which is used only at six pages or more. A cover is added only where a reader expects one and never under three pages.

Documents do not print citations, so references to the NES or the award are written into the clauses. The AI chat edits text only, which makes it useful for tightening a rule without disturbing the table. The page on data tables in a document shows the table block, and the tutorial on document builder components covers tables, callouts and page breaks.