Would you allow employees to donate their annual leave?
The idea of donating holidays sounds appealing at first but there are some fish-hooks here.
Remember the purpose of annual leave? It’s to allow the employ to rest and recover and recreate so they can de-stress and have family time and all those good things. That’s why there is statutory pressure to ensure employees take their leave, and that they take the leave when it is due, and that they take most of their leave in one continuous block so that the intention of the Act of rest and recreation can become a reality. Given the recent change to allow cashing up of a week, coupled with the bad practice of taking odd days here and there, and it’s possible to get into a situation where the R&R effect is either lost or endangered. The onus is on the employer to ensure employees are able to take their leave. Perhaps if they were donating discretionary leave such as long service leave, then that’s not the same thing – the statutory leave is still unharmed.
I’d advise caution…