No You Or Me — It’s We
Employers do not live in a vacuum. They are cogs in one large machine, collectively known as a community. For that reason, community leave is one of eleven National Employment Standards, with detailed information found on the Fair Work Ombudsman website. It is one of the few that is applied equally to all employees, but keep in mind that casuals accessing this form of leave generally are not compensated for time away from work, unless their employer is a compassionate one. Many, unfortunately, are not.
Casual employees are, yet again, disadvantaged from opportunities to develop alternate skill sets and to network, developing a larger group of contacts in the process. It is this connection with others, both in and out of the workplace, that prevents so many of the issues that are currently plaguing our society – mental distress and suicidal ideation, to name two.
So, with such a liberal application, what is community leave and why is it one of the eleven standards? Given we now appear to be living in a perpetual state of emergency this type of leave will soon become one of the more contested aspects of employment law.
In an emergency or natural disaster, volunteers are used to work alongside trained professionals from the emergency services field. In Australia the most common state of emergency is declared during bushfire season but there are other examples such as floods and droughts. The other activity that sits under the banner of community leave is jury duty.
- Casual employees
The leave application process will be the same for all types of employees, based on the way in which the business or organisation is set up. Don’t let size fool you. There are community-minded small businesses that manage to release employees, despite the smaller resource pool available to them, as well as large organisations who make it as painful as possible to avoid paying wages for an employee not on shift.
Don’t let these corporate websites, slogans and catch all catchphrases hoodwink you. Behind the closed doors of Australian workplaces is a scary place to be.
As for casuals, they are not at work and will not be given financial compensation. This is not the case for jury duty and they are compensated for the number of days they attend but not always by their employer. When it comes to saving society from a severe bushfire, our casuals get burnt for offering a helping hand but, in the case of serving justice, it is totally lit.
- Permanent employees
The availability of paid leave depends on who you work for. The issue with access for permanent workers is not necessarily attached to compensation but rather a particular manager’s perception of the validity of the leave request. One supervisor, disliking an employee, refused his application to participate in activities with his volunteer fire service. Another employee, seeking community leave for other reasons, was granted it, without thought.
This was in the midst of a natural disaster, with a person who documented his volunteer status and activities in public and later attended a charity concert for free because of the amount of hours he dedicated. He also witnessed his volunteer buddy die in the flames. It is easy to see why that employee holds residual anger towards that manager to this day. It is also a clear indicator that knowing your basic rights is crucial to avoid them being taken advantage of. In this case, the instructions were clear:
Escalate the matter up the food chain. Forward the email denying your request for leave to Human Resources, outline what has occurred and seek immediate support. Add in a brief history of the bullying you have been subjected to and put it on priority, so they know it’s urgent.
PINK COLLAR WORKERS
The leave was approved within the hour. That worker was further targeted by the manager but others, having watched on whilst in the midst of a crisis, started to observe themselves being treated the same way and, once an official complaint was lodged, that manager was pushed out of the workplace. Everyone issued a collective sigh of relief.
Many do not realise their workplace bully is going to bully no matter what, these types know of no other method of communication.
- Jury Duty
Payment for jury duty is complex. Many organisations have leave provisions and it is paid to the employee, despite not being at work. Alternatively, it can be topped up by the relevant state court, further outlined on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.
The key with jury duty is that you cannot be treated differently for attending jury service and employers can be prosecuted for discrimination based on jury duty attendance. This extends to the worker’s return to work. It is one of the strictest areas of employment law and is severely frowned upon by the regulatory bodies, who monitor inappropriate workplace conduct.
The justification is simple – we rely on impartial persons to uphold a safe society and we cannot achieve that if the jury system is monetarised for personal gain. The process must be seen as neutral and fair. It requires the diversity of Australian citizens to be included, extending to members of the workforce. It is inconvenient for employers to manage and monitor this type of leave because trials can go on for months. If we want to have some semblance of a just legal system, we need access to all Australians.
JUST TO CLARIFY
This type of leave does not extend to a worker’s personal experience of an emergency – natural disaster or individual – but pertains only to a volunteer role when there is a natural disaster or emergency.
The personal nature of an emergency is another form of leave. Some organisations have special disaster leave, in addition to personal leave, which is separate from community leave, as outlined above. As always, this information is offered free of charge, with a better (workplace) community in mind. The same way our volunteer services are there in times of need:
Community Leave.
NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS