Subject to the First Schedule (transitional provisions for leave years 1996–1998), an employee is entitled to paid annual leave equal to: (a) four working weeks in a leave year in which they work at least 1,365 hours (unless the leave year includes a change of employment); (b) one‑third of a working week for each month in which they work at least 117 hours; or (c) eight per cent of the hours worked in the leave year (subject to a maximum of four working weeks). If more than one paragraph applies and the resulting periods differ, the employee is entitled to whichever period is the greater.

A day absent through illness is, for the purposes of subsection (1), deemed to be a day at the employee’s place of work and performing duties if the employee provides a registered medical practitioner’s certificate; however, a day of annual leave on which the employee is ill and which is supported by such a certificate is not regarded as a day of annual leave. An employee who works eight or more months in a leave year must be granted an unbroken period of two weeks’ annual leave, subject to relevant orders or agreements; that unbroken period may include public holidays or days of illness. For subsection (1) an employee is regarded as having worked on a day of annual leave the hours they would have worked, and references to a working week mean the number of days the employee usually works in a week.