I had 6 weeks of annual leave saved up. Im changing to a job that pays significantly more than my current salary. When my boss asked me what it would take to stay, I asked for a salary increase of 35% which he begrudingly gave me. Then I quit. This equated to an entitlement payout of about $10,700 instead of $8000 on my previous rate, an extra $2700. And the new job still pays more than the increased rate I asked for.
The only makes sense if they actually wanted to keep him that long after he tried to quit. We don’t know for sure but potentially they just wanted to keep him around long enough to find a replacement (since he just told them he’s quitting).