25 - ANNUAL LEAVE

(1) A period of 4 weeks, (ie period equivalent to the period of ordinary hours of duty during a period of 4 weeks) exclusive of public holidays occurring during the period, shall be given as leave annually to all employees other than casual employees.
(2)The annual leave provided by this clause shall be allowed and shall ordinarily be taken in the year of accrual.
(3)An employee shall be allowed to take annual leave in whole or in part at a time convenient to the employee consistent with the operational requirements of the corporation.
(4) Where an employee does not avail of all or part of annual leave in the year of accrual, the non-availed leave may be deferred for a twelve month period consistent with the operational requirements of the corporation.
(5) Where an employee during annual leave takes sick leave of no less than one day, the employee shall have such leave recredited subject to the production of a medical certificate.
(6) Employees proceeding on annual leave who have requested payment at least three weeks prior to the commencement of leave shall be entitled to receive payment in advance.
(7) Employees in their first year of a period of continuous employment will accrue, on 1 January following, an annual leave credit of one twelfth of the period that normally accrues, for each completed calendar month of service from the time of commencement to 31 December of that year. Thereafter, they shall accrue on 1 January in each subsequent year of continuous service a period equivalent to the period of ordinary hours of duty during a period of four weeks.
(8)Payment shall not be made or accepted in lieu of annual leave except where an employee either leaves their employment or their employment is terminated by the employer in which case they shall be paid all accrued leave, together with one twelfth of an ordinary period that normally accrues for each completed calendar month of service in that final accrual year of service.
(9)Where an employee dies or is presumed to have died when there is an entitlement to accrued and/or pro rata recreation leave, the employee's dependents or if there are no dependents the employee's legal representatives are entitled to claim payment of an amount equivalent to the employee's pay for the period of leave at credit.

25A ANNUAL LEAVE - TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS

(1) This clause applies to employees who were, on the day preceding the day referred to in section 2(3) of the Telecommuni- cations Amendment Act 1988, employed by the corporation as temporary employees and thereafter continued in the employment of the corporation.
(2) Employees shall be credited in 1989 and 1990 with the annual leave to which they would have been entitled on the date on which they would have received the credit pursuant to clause 26 of the Telecom General Conditions of Employment Award 1988.
(3) Employees who cease employment prior to 1 January 1991 shall be entitled to payment in lieu of annual leave not taken on the basis of the provisions of clause 26 of the Telecom General Conditions of Employment Award 1988.
(4)On 1 January 1991 employees shall be credited with the annual leave entitlement which they would have received pursuant to clause 25 had they commenced employment on the date in 1990 on which they received a credit of annual leave pursuant to subclause (2).
(5) In the year 1991 an employee shall be entitled to additional annual leave of three days subject to deduction from the leave credit on 1 January 1992.
(6)Clause 25 of this award shall apply subject to the provisions of this clause.

26 - ANNUAL LEAVE - SPECIAL PROVISIONS

(1) This clause applies to fixed term, part-time and casual employees who are not in receipt of a loading in lieu of annual leave.
(2) Where an employee has had more than one period of engagement in a calendar year, there shall, for the purpose of ascertaining the payment to which they are entitled under clause 27 in respect of an engagement subsequent to the first, be added to the period of service of the second or subsequent engagements any periods of service less than one month in the previous engagements which have not already been taken into consideration in the computation of payment in lieu of recreation leave for the preceding engagements.

27 - ANNUAL LEAVE - ADDITIONAL PAYMENT

(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this award an employee shall be entitled in respect of annual leave in addition to any other sum payable to them for such leave except payments referred to in paragraph (b) hereunder to payment of the greater of the following (a) or (b).
(a) A sum equal to 17-1/2% of the salary of an employee as at 1 January of the year in which the leave accrued for the period of leave accrued subject to a maximum payment of the equivalent of the statistician's average weekly earnings per employed male unit (original - Australia) for the September quarter of the year preceding the year in which the date of accrual occurs.
Provided that where an employee commenced employment after 1 January of any year and their services are terminated before the end of that calendar year their salary for purposes of this subclause shall be 1 January equivalent to the salary payable to them upon the commencement of their employment.
(b) Any additional payments to which they are entitled for shift Saturday or Sunday duty not in excess of prescribed weekly hours which they would have performed had they not been on approved annual leave.
(2) Payments to which an employee is entitled pursuant to paragraph (1)(a) hereof shall be reduced by any amounts payable to them pursuant to the provisions of subclauses 16(7), 17(6) 18(5) and 19(5) of this award or any like provision in any other award or determination.
(3) Payment of entitlement under this award shall be made:
(a) to an employee who takes leave pursuant to a roster or a close-down at the time of payment to them for such leave;
(b) to an employee not covered by paragraph (3)(a) with the payment made to them for leave following a request by them for such payment made with an application by them for at least one week of the annual leave to which such entitlement relates.
(4) An employee whose services terminate for any reason and who is entitled to payment in lieu of accumulated annual leave or in lieu of leave on a pro rata basis shall be paid in accordance with subclauses (1) and (2):
(a) in respect of the balance of their annual leave credit for which the amount prescribed by the said subclauses (1) and (2) has not been paid; and
(b) in respect of leave calculated on a pro rata basis for the number of completed months of continuous service between the date of the last accrual and the date on which their service terminates provided that the maximum payment shall be in the proportion that such number of months bears to twelve months.
(5) As to an employee who because of annual leave close-down provisions has an annual leave accrual date of 1 December:
(a)The date 1 January appearing in subclauses (1) and (6) hereof shall be read as 1 December;
(b) the expression "preceding the year" appearing in paragraph (1)(a) shall be deemed to be omitted.
(6) Salary for the purpose of calculating entitlement under paragraph (1)(a) includes any additional payments which the employee would have received if they had commenced leave on 1 January of the year in which the leave accrued other than payments referred to in paragraph (1)(b).

28 - ANNUAL LEAVE - SEVEN DAY SHIFT WORKERS

(1) In addition to the period of annual leave prescribed in clause 25 of this award, seven day shift workers, that is, shift workers who are rostered to work regularly on Sundays and holidays, shall be allowed seven consecutive days leave including non-working days.
(2) Where a seven day shift worker is rostered to perform the duties on less than ten Sundays during the period in respect of which their annual leave accrues they shall not be entitled to additional leave under subclause (1) but shall be granted additional leave at the rate of one tenth of a working week in respect of each Sunday so rostered.
(3) Rostered Sunday overtime shifts shall not count for the purpose of subclauses (1) and (2) where such shifts are of less than three hours duration:
Provided that rostered overtime shift which commences on a Saturday and extends into Sunday or commences on a Sunday and extends into Monday shall be deemed to be a Sunday overtime shift for the purposes of this subclause.
(4)The annual leave prescribed by this clause shall be exclusive of holidays.
(5)Where leave due under the provisions of subclauses (1) and (2) is not granted before the termination of employment it shall be discharged in a similar manner to leave accrued under clause 25 of this award.
(6) Where the period of additional leave to be allowed under subclause (2) of this clause includes an amount of less than one day, and corporation working arrangements so require, the corporation may determine that amount shall be carried forward to the following year.
(7) In any uncompleted year of service an employee who resigns or whose services are terminated shall be eligible for payment in lieu of annual leave accrued under the provisions of this clause in addition to any pro rata entitlement under the provisions of clause 25 of this award.

29 - AFTER HOURS DUTY AWAY FROM NORMAL WORKSITE

Employees may be required to perform duty away from their normal worksite after hours either via remote terminals or by providing technical advice over the telephone.
Conditions
(1)(a) Employees will only be requested to perform duty away from their normal worksite either via remote computer terminals or by providing technical advice over the telephone in order to restore essential services to customers in emergency circumstances. This clause is not intended to restrict or limit the exercising of an employee's proper discretion as to whether there is a need to return to the place of work in order to restore the essential services.
(b) If a fault cannot be fixed from home and the employee concerned is required to return to their worksite to rectify the fault, then normal recall duty to emergency duty provisions shall be applied from the time of the receipt of the call in lieu of payment for working from home in the following manner:

- provisions of subclause 24(8) shall apply to employees placed in the restriction situation specified in paragraph (2)(a) hereof;
- provisions of clause 20 - Emergency duty, shall apply to employees not placed in a restriction situation.
(c) Except with the approval of the corporation the occupants of positions which are not eligible for payment in accordance with subclause 12(6) shall not be eligible to receive payment under this clause.
(d) Employees contacted twice to perform duty within the specific minimum time payment will not be eligible for a second payment. Calls will normally be directed to the specialist who would normally be contacted during these emergencies and will not be directed to a person for the sole reason that they may have already been contacted within the minimum time period.
(e) Employees who are called upon to perform duty at home which can be effectively performed at home but who elect to perform the work at their workstation will only be eligible for payment as if the work was performed at home.

Payment
(2) Payment will be made depending on the restriction of the employee:
(a) An employee may be placed in a restriction situation under which the employee is required to remain contactable and available to commence work within 30 minutes of being contacted, unless special circumstances exist. A restriction allowance shall be paid as shown in the item, Duty away from normal worksite allowance of schedule C. If required to perform duty at home, payment at the appropriate overtime rates will be made for actual time worked subject to a minimum of one hour.
(b) Employees who are not placed in a restricted situation in accordance with paragraph (2)(a) herein and are contacted to perform duty at home shall receive payment at double time for actual time worked subject to a minimum payment of one hour.
Rest relief
(3) The current rest relief provisions in respect to emergency duty will apply to duty performed under the abovementioned conditions.

30 - LEAVE TO ATTEND ARBITRATION BUSINESS

(1) Leave of absence shall be granted to members of a claimant organisation to represent the organisation in any proceedings to which the corporation is a party under the Industrial Relations Act 1988 or proceedings before the designated Presidential Member, the Industrial Registrar or a Deputy Industrial Registrar holding office under the Industrial Relations Act 1988 on the following conditions.
(a) Leave of absence shall not be granted to more than two representatives of an organisation at one time in respect of any one such proceeding.
(b) Leave of absence for conduct of a case shall be with full pay.
(c) Leave of absence for preparation of a case shall be without pay and shall not exceed three months in any twelve months.
(2) Leave of absence shall be granted to any member of the claimant organisations required to attend any proceedings under the Industrial Relations Act 1988 or proceedings before the Industrial Registrar or a Deputy Industrial Registrar holding office under the Industrial Relations Act 1988 to which the corporation is not a party on the following conditions:
(a) Leave of absence granted under this subclause shall not be granted to more than two representatives of an organisation at one time in respect of any one such proceeding.
(b) Leave of absence granted under this subclause shall be without pay and shall not exceed three months in any twelve months.
(3) Leave of absence with full pay shall be granted to any member of the claimant organisations summoned as a witness in proceedings under the Industrial Relations Act 1988 or proceedings before the Industrial Registrar or a Deputy Industrial Registrar holding office under the Industrial Relations Act 1988. The leave shall be only for such time as that member is necessarily absent from duty attending as a witness provided that where the witness is stationed at a place more than fifteen miles distant from the place of hearing, the grant of leave with pay shall be subject to a certificate from a member of the Commission, a judge of the court or the Industrial Registrar or a Deputy Industrial Registrar that in their opinion the attendance of that witness was reasonably necessary for the proper presentation of the case.
(4) Leave of absence granted under this clause shall count for all purposes as period of service.

31 - SICK LEAVE

In the case of illness of an employee the corporation may, on production of satisfactory medical evidence, grant the employee leave of absence. Provided that sick leave may be granted for up to five days in any sick leave year without medical evidence provided that no continuous period of sick leave exceeds three days.
The grant of leave shall be subject to the following conditions:
(1) Except as otherwise provided in this clause, the basis for determining the leave which may be granted shall be ascertained by crediting the employee with the following periods, such leave to be cumulative:
Leave on full pay Leave on half pay
Working weeks Working weeks
On date of permanent appointment 2 2
On completion of twelve months service 2 2
On completion of each additional twelve months service 2 2
Provided that:
The corporation may grant additional sick leave to an employee, who, during their first ten years of permanent service exhausts their sick leave credit on full pay accrued on the basis of the foregoing provisions, to the extent of a years credit in anticipation of their sick leave next accruing. Additional sick leave granted in pursuance of this subparagraph shall be subject to the same conditions as are applicable to sick leave granted in accordance with an employee's normal sick leave credit.
(2)Sick leave availed of by an employee shall be debited against their credit of sick leave:
Provided that sick leave availed of by an employee on a public holiday which, but for the sick leave they would have observed, shall not be debited.
(3) Where in the case of an employee with long service, the corporation considers that such treatment is justified, the corporation may:
(a) other than where short absences are involved, allow an employee to convert to leave on full pay so much of their credit of leave on half pay as is necessary for the employee's immediate purposes;
(b) where leave on pay is exhausted, grant additional leave on half pay.
(4) The maximum period allowable with pay in respect of any continuous absence through illness shall be 52 weeks.
(5)Where an employee has exhausted all leave allowable with pay, they may be granted leave without pay:
Provided that, in respect of any continuous period of absence, leave with and without pay shall not exceed 78 weeks.
(6) The retirement of an employee on the grounds of invalidity shall not, except with the consent of the employee, be effected earlier than the date on which the employee's credit of leave on full pay will be exhausted:
Provided that:
(a) the continuous period for which an employee may be granted sick leave on full pay immediately prior to retirement shall not exceed 52 weeks;
(b) a further credit of sick leave shall not accrue to an employee subsequent to the date of the decision to retire them; and
(c) in no case shall an employee be entitled to sick leave extending beyond the day immediately preceding the sixty-fifth anniversary of their birth.
(7) Employees who have been retired on the grounds of invalidity shall if subsequently reappointed to the corporation be credited upon reappointment with sick leave credits held immediately prior to retirement.
(8) If an employee falls sick while on annual leave and produces at the time satisfactory medical evidence, they may be granted, at a time convenient to the corporation, additional leave equivalent to the period of sickness falling within the scheduled period of annual leave and the absence will be recorded as sick leave subject to sick leave credits, provided the employee is, at the time of obtaining the medical certificate, unfit for duty, the medical evidence so indicates and sick leave for not less than one day is needed.