Sometimes when an employee leaves work early they're paid for hours they haven't worked.

The payment an employee will get depends on why the employee has stopped work.

Employer instructs an employee to stop working

An employer could send an employee home early because they’re no longer needed. The employee still gets paid:

• for they hours they would normally have worked on that day if they are a full-time or part-time employee,
• their minimum payment for the shift as provided in their award if they are a casual employee.

When an employer sends an employee home early, they can’t require the employee to take paid leave, such as annual leave, to cover the period they’re not at work.

For information on when an employer can direct an employee to take annual leave, see Directing an employee to take annual leave.

Example

Elsie is a full-time administrative assistant for a small company.

Her hours are 9am-5pm Monday to Friday.

At 11am on a Friday, Elsie’s employer tells her to leave early because there isn’t enoughwork for her to do that day.

Elsie is still paid for the remainder of the day because the employer has directed her not to work.

The employer can’t deduct any leave from Elsie’s leave balance.

Casual employees and minimum payments

Many awards state that casual employees get a minimum payment for each shift. A casual must be paid the whole minimum payment even if they aren’t required to work for the whole time.

Example

Harper is a casual employee under the Clerks Award. The minimum payment for casual employees in her award is 3 hours.

Harper was asked to come in to cover reception for 2 hours.

She is still paid for 3 hours work because that’s the minimum payment for casuals in her award.

Example

Binh is a casual employee. He is covered by the Vehicle Award.

The minimum payment for casual employees in his award is 2 hours.

Binh was rostered on for 5 hours. His employer sent him home after 1 hour due to a rostering error.

Binh gets paid for 2 hours as that’s his minimum payment entitlement in his award.

Stand downs

In some cases, such as a stand down, employees can be sent home early without pay.

An employee can only be stood down if the business can’t operate because of a circumstance that’s outside of the employer’s control.

See Stand downs for more information.

Employee leaving early

If an employee chooses to leave early and the employer hasn't instructed them to stop work, the employee may be entitled to a form of paid leave to cover their absence.

Some examples of paid leave are:

• sick leave
• annual leave
• family and domestic violence leave if their absence is to deal with the impacts of family and domestic violence.

See Leave for more information on different kinds of leave an employee may be able to take.

If the employee can’t take a form of paid leave, then unpaid leave could apply.

For more information on when an employee can take unpaid leave see Unpaid leave.

Casual employees

Casual employees don’t get sick leave and annual leave.

Casual employees can access up to 10 days of paid of family and domestic violence leave if their absence is to deal with the impacts of family and domestic violence.

See Taking family and domestic violence leave for more information on accessing this entitlement.

If a casual employee needs to leave work early and they’re not accessing family and domestic violence leave, they’re paid for their time spent at work.

If the time spent at work before the employee chooses to leave is less than the minimum payment period, the remainder of their minimum payment period will be unpaid.

Example

Yanny is a casual employee working for a clothing retailer covered by the Retail Award.

The minimum engagement for casual employees under the Retail Award is 3 hours.

1 hour into the shift Yanny starts feeling unwell and is unable to continue working. He speaks with his manager and goes home early.

Yanny is paid for the 1 hour of work he performed.

He isn’t paid the remainder of his minimum engagement because he’s unfit for work and casual employees don’t get sick leave.