Leave lapse could be cashed in

By Graham Howatt, Armed Forces Federation of Australia

FOLLOWERS of the Federation's activities would be well aware of our stance in regard to the lapsing of accrued recreation leave, which is that no-one should forfeit or have their leave credits lapsed where it has been beyond their control to clear accumulated leave.

The current leave policy provides for the accumulation of leave for three consecutive leave years before it would be lapsed. In exceptional circumstances, the Service Chiefs have been delegated the CDF's authority to extend accumulation of recreation leave into a fourth year before it would be lapsed or forfeited.

The Federation last discussed this very emotional and sensitive issue with the CDF on June 16. We again stressed our position that ADF members should not be disadvantaged financially by having their leave lapsed, particularly with the current and predicted state of such high operational tempo.

Rather than having leave lapse, it would be more palatable for the Federation and affected members to have the leave in question “cashed out”.

CDF advised at that time that he was considering such an option as a “one-off” opportunity for affected members and was also investigating the introduction of incentive schemes to encourage members to reduce accumulated leave credits.

Details of the schemes were not discussed but the Federation's support for the introduction of such initiatives was quite clear.

This is not to suggest the Federation believes members should have the right to cash out annual recreation leave at will. We fully recognise that the well-being of all is best served by regular periods of quality recreation leave away from the workplace.

Good in theory, difficult to implement and the ADF member should not be the loser.

That said, the Federation is pleased to note the intervention of the CDF on this issue by announcing a waiver to the current leave policy in order for ADF members who had leave lapsed at the end of the last leave year to have it reinstated.

ADF leave and long service leave policy are just two of many conditions of service policy issues that are listed on the agenda for this year's ArFFA/DPE workshop scheduled in Canberra (Queanbeyan) on October 22 and 23.

ADF members who will be in the region during that time are welcome to attend and observe the workshop.

For more information phone 1800 806 861 or see the web site www.arffa.org.au.

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