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Published: Tuesday, 13 October 2026 15:04
MyLeave was the hardest fought achievement, the issue occupying more time of the Commission in mediation than any other, and a qualitative change in the industry providing a new flexibility for employees. It’s now all about cooperation. The Commission broke LGNSW’s obsession with restricting MyLeave if you had more than eight weeks annual leave. That’s a different and unrelated issue.
LGNSW has to stop listening to their advisory group of misery from HR and GMs.
It’s intended to break the mandatory restraints imposed over the years by reactionary HR/P&C functionaries and general managers - who much prefer it all to be black-and-white, founded on managerial prerogative and where everything requires the employer’s approval. The unimaginative and reluctant hate discretion - clearly they’re not prepared to back their own judgement.
We knew at the time there’d be many disappointed and hostile. Bit by bit we are dealing with those councils getting them to understand that the world has changed, the shackles are removed, a more cooperative approach to this form of leave has been imposed.
Leaving aside the transitional arrangements, this is the operational part of the clause in its entirety:
L. MYLEAVE
(i) Subject to this clause, an employee (other than a casual) shall be entitled to 1 week of MyLeave at ordinary pay during each year of service. MyLeave becomes available upon commencement or on each anniversary following the making of this Award.
(ii) MyLeave may be used by an employee for any purpose or activity and may be taken flexibly, in blocks of single or multiple hours or single or consecutive days.
(iii) Where practicable an employee must provide the Employer with advance notice of the intention to take MyLeave. Where an employee seeks to take more than 1 day of MyLeave consecutively, the Employer and employee shall agree on the period, provided that such agreement shall not be unreasonably refused.
(iv) MyLeave does not accumulate or accrue from year to year and is not paid out on termination of employment.
(v) An employee who is entitled to MyLeave can elect in writing that some, or all, of their unused MyLeave days be converted to sick leave (before it expires). Once such an election has been made it cannot be reversed.
(vi) Subject to exceptional circumstances, an employee’s election to convert unused MyLeave days to sick leave must occur at least a month prior to the employee’s anniversary date.
(a) To facilitate the election in subclause (v) an Employer is required once a year to provide:
(1) Notification (unless it is otherwise readily accessible) of an employee’s anniversary date; and
(2) Notification of the right to elect to convert unused MyLeave days.
(viii) The transitional MyLeave entitlements referred to in subclause (vii) do not accrue and expire upon an employee’s first anniversary following the making of the Award.
It’s a beautiful clause introducing a more cooperative arrangement in the workplace - it can be used for any purpose, if it’s practical you must provide advance notice, if it is impractical, you don’t, and if you want to take more than one day consecutively you are required to “agree on the period with your boss - providing that “such agreement shall not be unreasonably refused”!
Be kind to HR/P&C, they’re on a learning curve at the moment. It’s a novelty to have discretion instead of someone making the decision for you.
The Award Implementation Committee will focus on pulling Councils into line which are not doing the right thing. Please let us know if you think your council is doing the wrong thing, and we will put them on the list.
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Published: Tuesday, 16 June 2026 12:55
Commissioner Howell in the NSW Industrial Relations Commission this morning consented to the making of a new Local Government State Award 2026.
It will apply from the first pay period on or after 1 July and will operate for 3 years, providing a 4% pay increase from the first pay period after 1 July, a further 4% from the first pay period after 1 July 2027, and a final 4% from the first pay period after 1 July 2028.
After submissions from the parties, the Commissioner observed he was “well satisfied“ that the Award provided conditions that are fair and reasonable and meet the requirements of the Industrial Relations Act and procedures to allow the consent award to be made.
Pay increases are always the most important issue to workers, and while conscious that the CPI at the time we were arguing about these pay increases hit 4.6% in the March quarter, the employers would not budge. It’s a good increase, and when the information went out to our members it was overwhelmingly and unanimously accepted.
In our information sent to members we noted “we were still exploring the possibility of opening the Award during its lifetime if the cost of living becomes all completely out of control, or the Fair Work Commission hands down a significant National Wage Increase intended flow on across the country.”
This issue was specifically argued in conciliation by Commissioner Howell on 26 May but we couldn’t get a no fuss reference in the Leave Reserved clause. We ended up with this:
“The parties to the Award are obliged to propose a package which is considered fair and reasonable. The Unions pursued the inclusion of a leave reserved clause to accommodate unanticipated spikes in headline inflation. LGNSW did not agree. The Award does not include a “no extra claims” clause and the Industrial Relations Act 1996 (NSW) (at section 17(3)) in conjunction with the Commission’s Award Making Principles allow for an Award to be varied during its nominal term to ensure that the Award remains fair and reasonable. The parties agree that the Award may be varied during a nominal term, either by consent of the parties or as a result of an Arbitrated Case”.
It’s better than nothing, it was included in the affidavits of the parties who requested that it be included in the statement and decision of Commissioner Howell when it is published.
But it’s not all about the money. We hated our proposal about Health and Wellbeing Leave in the 2014 Award being restricted and stifled unnecessarily by rigid-minded HR and GMs, and this Award will do something about it. This will be a very brief summary and for more details of the benefits that will flow, here is the document we forwarded to members as part of our argument recommending acceptance of the offer.
For us, the big deal improvement is the introduction of My Leave. It will be 5 days leave transferred from sick leave, which can be taken for any reason at all, and if not taken, there is a process to return any untaken MyLeave to your sick leave; paid parental leave will be doubled to 14 weeks and will be available to both parents; there are references to AI to try to make it less threatening and subject to consultation; and Working from Home is at last acknowledged in clause 2. The Award Implementation Committee is reinstated to deal with issues like AI, how to fairly calculate costs for EVs, the appropriate use of term contracts, and the implementation of My Leave, to ensure that the dead hand of HR doesn’t poison the intention of the parties that it be available for any purpose.
Read about MyLeave carefully - this is a unique arrangement converting the first week of sick leave to something more accessible, but allowing it to be transferred into the sick leave entitlements if not used during the year.
