Long service leave?

Do you even know what it is? Do we still need it?

For those of you in Upover and elsewhere I probably need to explain. "Long service leave" was the ten days annual leave you could accrue each year over a period of ten or more years and then use for some other purpose.

The original idea was it took so long to travel between Downunder and Upover public officials needed the extra time to "go home" every so often. It grew into something that anyone in the public service sector could get after ten years. In a sense it is an extra ten days leave a year - after ten or more years.

Not everyone took their accrued leave. They simply retired a little earlier. Others used it in other ways. Some people used it for the benefit of their careers or to help others. 

I know people who accrued enough leave to take a year out at half pay (i.e. twice as much time at half pay). They did post-graduate courses and used those to obtain promotion. It was a good use of the scheme.

The Senior Cat used some of his leave to do an extensive study trip in western Europe to study the teaching of reading. He obtained a scholarship to help with the additional expenses. When he came back he worked closely with another member of the Education Department on what was then called "the Reading Centre" - a wonderful resource of materials about the teaching of reading. This was eventually shut down by a government trying to save money. (They also closed the School Libraries Branch and areas involved with Music, Science and Art. It has not saved money. Teachers needed those resources.)

The Senior Cat's cousin used his leave to take his two children out of school for a year. The family travelled around the entire coastline of this country. M...., a geography specialist, used the trip to educate his children and to collect materials and photographs for using in teaching. 

Someone else I know used their leave to do some research in an obscure archive somewhere in the United States. Another used it to gain some practical metalworking skills which he then passed on to high school students here.

Yes,  teachers often used it for the benefit of other people. I know so many teachers I have heard about these things. I also know other professional people have often done the same. Long service leave is still potentially valuable in that way. 

But do other people need it? We have gone from two weeks annual leave to four or more for everyone now. In addition there is parental leave, sick leave, bereavement leave and more. Most employers are very accommodating about things like dental and other medical appointments. When long service leave began those things were not nearly as readily available as annual leave. 

Long service leave seems a rather outdated idea now. It doesn't necessarily go with you from one job to the next in all parts of the country. The nature of work has changed. People don't often stay with the same employer for so long.

But if it is there and it is still used for the purpose of study or research or extending skills then it may be that it does still have something to commend it. Should it be retained if used for that purpose?