INTHEBLACK February 2022 - Magazine - Page 16
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16 ITB February 2022
AT A
GLANCE
Large annual leave
accruals can pose
a financial problem
for organisations,
especially when
payouts need to
be made based
on higher salaries.
Despite higher levels
of burnout, the
number of employees
taking annual leave
declined considerably
during 2021, but is
expected to rise
this year.
T
he disruptive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
have been felt in nearly all quarters of contemporary
life, but perhaps none more so than in travel.
For much of 2020 and 2021, public health stay-athome orders restricted the movements of millions of
Australians to within their local government area or
a set kilometre radius from home.
Annual trips to the snow, long weekends camping,
beach holidays and interstate city breaks all fell victim
to the pandemic. As a result, “people have been
stockpiling leave”, says Michael Byrnes, workplace
relations lawyer and a partner at Sydney law firm
Swaab. “They’ve not been inclined to take annual leave
because they’ve been working from home, and there’s
nowhere to go.”