Mondelez v AMWU

Mondelez v AMWU
Court	High Court of Australia
Full case name	Mondelez Australia Pty Ltd v Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union [2020] HCA 29
Case history
Appealed from	Mondelez v AMWU [2019] FCAFC 138
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	Kiefel CJ , Gageler , Nettle , Gordon and Edelman JJ

Mondelez v AMWU is a 2020 decision of the High Court of Australia involving the appeal of a decision by the Federal Court of Australia regarding personal leave, an entitlement used when an employee is sick and not able to work. A subsidiary of Mondelez International, Mondelez Australia, operates a chocolate factory in Claremont, Tasmania. Employees of the chocolate factory work under a collective bargaining agreement. The relevant agreement outlines employment terms and conditions, stipulating a 36-hour work week averaged over a four-week cycle, with three 12-hour shifts worked weekly for shift workers.

Per the agreement, all employees were entitled to 96 hours of paid personal leave each year. However, a dispute arose when the Fair Work Commission ruled that employees working 12-hour shifts should receive 120 hours of personal leave per year. Mondelez would deduct 12 hours of personal leave from the balance of an employee who used the entitlement in lieu of working a 12-hour shift, meaning that an employee in this circumstance would receive 96 hours, or eight "notional" days of personal leave per year. Two employees, represented by the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, challenged Mondelez's practice of paying them only 96 hours of personal leave per year, arguing an entitlement to 10 working days of leave totalling 120 hours per year in line with the Fair Work Commission decision. The Federal Court of Australia was tasked with defining what constitutes a "day" in the context of personal leave entitlements under the National Employment Standards.

Mondelez asserted that the National Employment Standards interpreted 10 "notional" days as the equivalent of 7.2 hours per week when dividing by the 36-hour weekly work hours. The Australian Manufacturing Workers argued a "day" should be seen as a unit of hours worked on a day. The Federal Court of Australia ruled in favour of the Australian Manufacturing Workers. Mondelez and the Australian government appealed to the High Court of Australia, which overturned the Federal Court of Australia's decision. The High Court of Australia determined personal leave accrues at a rate of 1/26 of annual working hours for all employees, regardless of their work schedule, resulting in proportionate leave entitlements. This ruling was in alignment with industry practice and provided clarity regarding personal leave entitlements for employees with non-standard shift arrangements.