5 Weeks of Annual Leave
Slim majorities in the House and Senate highlight the need for Labor to do popular things that materially benefit people's lives
To maximise the chances of maintaining a majority in the House and maintaining a progressive Majority in the Senate in 2025, Labor should enact policies which materially benefit people’s lives.
To achieve this, Labor should investigate and pass legislation to (amongst other ideas):
Increase full-time worker’s annual leave entitlement to 5 weeks per year
Give employees stronger rights in relation to flexible working and WFH
Limit the ability of employers to force employees to take annual leave due to a ‘annual shutdown’
Today, we will take a closer look at the first of these.
‘5 weeks of Annual Leave’ will be a vote winner and aligns with the recommendations from the 2022 ALP Campaign Review
The first recommendation from the ALP’s 2022 Campaign Review states the following.
Increasing the annual leave entitlement of full-time employees from 4 weeks (20 days) to 5 weeks (25 days) per year could be a “signature policy” that showcases “the values of the Albanese Government” and help “shape and characterise the Government”.
Put simply, people like holidays. Having more of them is good.
The only data I have on this is an incredibly unscientific poll I ran on Twitter, but I think it’s pretty reasonable to assume that having an extra week of annual leave passes the ‘pub test’.
There would be some grumbling from business groups, small business owners and the very serious people writing for the AFR and News Ltd, but the majority of voters will like this policy (prove me wrong on this point if any higher quality polling exists).
Not only would it be popular, but this policy also
Builds and reinforces Labor’s legacy of expanding worker’s rights
Can be easily communicated and understood
Benefits people’s lives in a direct and uncomplicated way
Generates conversations that will further raise awareness
A successful political message is one that gets repeated. And this is a policy and message that will generate conversations and build goodwill for the government.
This policy will instigate more conversations and achieve more cut through than other policies. For example, it is much more likely that people will talk to their friends, families and co-workers about what they’ll do with their extra week of leave than it is that they will discuss the intricacies of multi-employer bargaining.
So much small talk is focused on questions like “What are you doing for the holidays?” or “Have you got anything exciting coming up?”. This will mean that this policy will come up in naturally in conversation and have incredibly strong cut-through.
If enacted, this policy will be in the front of people’s minds when they go to vote in 2025 and should be repeated ad nauseum in campaign materials and in conversations with voters.
Ideally, voters will be thinking “I think Albanese seems like a pretty good bloke. Having 5 weeks of Annual Leave is pretty bloody good. I might vote for Labor this time”.
In 2022, Labor won a 2-seat majority in the House and the Senate has a 1-seat majority of progressive Senators (Labor, Greens, David Pocock). Over the past 25 years, Labor (and the Coalition) have seen a decline in their first preference vote (as seen in the chart below).
In this context, it is critical that Labor vigorously pursue policies which win votes by materially benefitting people’s lives. While Labor has a House majority and a progressive Senate majority it is imperative to deliver benefits to people’s lives and maximise the likelihood of maintaining or expanding Labor’s position in Parliament.
Source: ABC
This policy builds on Labor’s legacy and shows that Labor continues to deliver benefits to people’s lives
The Labor party and the union movement have achieved many things including
Paid annual leave
Sick Leave
Penalty Rates
Worker’s Compensation
Despite these historical successes, a key challenge for the Labor movement is to remain relevant and to show the public that we can continue to deliver meaningful benefits to people’s lives. The decline in first preference votes and union membership is evidence of this challenge.
This policy addresses this challenge.
Timeline
Labor could announce a review into annual leave in early 2023 which would produce findings in 3-6 months. Labor could aim to have the laws come into effect from July 1st 2024 so that people have begun to benefit prior to the next Federal Election.
Example Timeline
Feb 23’: Announce review into Annual Leave policy
Aug 23’: Publish results from review and announcement of recommendations that will be adopted
Nov 23’: Legislate changes which will come into effect from July 1st 2024
Jul 24’: New laws come into effect and people begin to accrue leave and benefit
May 25’: Federal Election
This review could also look at opportunities to
Strengthen worker’s rights to work flexibly and to work from home (WFH)
Restrict employer’s ability to force employees to take a large chunk of their annual leave as part of a Christmas shutdown (e.g forcing employees to take 8 days, or 40%, of their annual leave allocation at a certain time)
These other ideas might be explored in future posts.
Comparing across countries to identify where Australia has fallen behind
A detailed policy review would be useful to compare annual leave entitlements between countries. For example, in researching this piece I realised my tweet was slightly inaccurate (The UK has 28 days of paid leave but this doesn’t account for the fact that employees use 8 of these for otherwise unpaid public holidays).
The intention of the review should be to compare policies across developed and prosperous countries (such as Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Sweden, Iceland and Norway) and identify areas where Australia has fallen behind.
Additionally, the intention of this review should be to develop policy recommendations for expanding the annual leave available to Australian workers.
Talking Points
Once the review is completed and the government has determined its policy position, Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke and other Labor politicians could make the case for this policy change using arguments similar to the points below.
Work is important. But there is more to life than work. Having an extra week of leave each year means that Australians can have more holidays, more travel and enjoy more quality time with their friends and families.
A 5th week of annual leave will mean that it’s easier to find the time to squeeze in another camping trip with your kids, before they grow up and don't think its cool to hang around with their parents.
It means you can take your family on the caravan trip around Australia or to go on the big Europe trip you’ve been fantasising about but have never got around to.People in France, Finland, Denmark and Austria get 5 weeks of paid annual leave each year, why shouldn’t we?
What do you think of this policy idea? Are there any other policy ideas that government should pursue that are progressive and popular?