A part-time Registrar works Thursdays and Fridays totalling 16 hours per week. Occasionally, when other doctors are unavailable, the Practice Manager and the Registrar agree that the Registrar will work extra days. There is no formal documentation of this agreement to work extra days.
Should there be a recalculation of the Registrar’s accrual of annual leave and personal leave as working days exceed the documented work agreement of 16 hours per week?
The NTCER outlines your minimum employment terms and conditions
Still have questions?
Under the Fair Work Act, a permanent employee’s entitlement to paid annual leave accrues progressively during a year of service according to the employee’s ordinary hours of work.
See particularly clauses 6.1, 10.9 and 16.1 Clause 6.1 of the NTCER.
In this case, the registrar and practice have verbally agreed that the registrar will work “additional ordinary hours” as defined in clause 10.9 of the NTCER. Annual leave should accrue on these additional ordinary hours of work.
To minimise the potential for dispute, we recommend that any agreement to work additional ordinary hours (and about payment for such hours) is recorded in writing.
Where a registrar works overtime as defined in clause 11.2 of the NTCER (rather than agreed additional ordinary hours of work), annual leave will not accrue on such hours unless stated otherwise in a registrar’s employment agreement.
Where a dispute arises in relation to a registrar’s entitlement to annual leave, the registrar and the practice should follow the dispute resolution procedure set out at clause 18 of the NTCER.
Visit the Fair Work website for more information about annual leave – https://www.fairwork.gov.au/tools-and-resources/fact-sheets/minimum-workplace-entitlements/annual-leave