An employee gets long service leave after a long period of working for the same employer.
Employees’ entitlement to long service leave comes from long service leave laws in each state or territory.
Designed as a reward for long-term service with one employer, LSL provides employees with extended paid leave after a lengthy period of employment with the same employer (usually 10 years but in some states it’s 7 years). These entitlements can vary across the different states and territories.
Casual employees may also have an entitlement to LSL in most states.
Pro Rata Long Service Leave:
In some states, employees are entitled to pro-rata long service leave after a minimum of 5 to 7 years if they resign due to unavoidable circumstances such as illness or death of a close family member.
Entitlements by State:
- New South Wales: Employees receive 2 months of leave after 10 years of continuous service.
- Australian Capital Territory: Employees are entitled to 6.0667 weeks of leave after 7 years of service.
- Victoria: Entitlements accrue at a rate of one week for each 60 weeks of service and can be taken after 7 years
- South Australia: 13 weeks of leave after 10 years
- Western Australia: 8.6667 weeks after 10 years
- Northern Territory: 13 weeks for the first 10 years
- Queensland: 8.6667 weeks for the first 10 years
- Tasmania: 8.6667 weeks for the first 10 years
Portable Long Service Leave:
The construction industry also has portable LSL schemes that allow workers to accumulate leave entitlements even as they move between jobs and different employers.
These schemes allow for the transfer of long service leave entitlements across employers within the same industry, offering greater flexibility for employees working for different employers.
Registration is essential for both workers and employers and employers submit a return with details of their employees either quarterly or yearly.
The below gives details of each state’s portable LSL scheme and whether the employer contributes to the scheme:
State Contribution paid by the employer
- ACT- 2.75% of ordinary gross wages
- NSW- The scheme is funded through a levy imposed on eligible NSW construction projects. There are no fees for costs for workers or employers.
- NT- The scheme is funded through a levy imposed on eligible Northern Territory construction projects. There are no fees for costs for workers or employers.
- Queensland- The scheme is funded through a levy imposed on eligible Qld construction projects. There are no fees for costs for workers or employers.
- South Australia – 2% of total remuneration
- Tasmania – 2.5% of ordinary pay
- Victoria – 2.7% of the reportable gross wages
- Western Australia – 0.75% of the ordinary rate of pay
It’s important to check with the scheme administrator in your state before you pay LSL if you have an employee that is employed with you long term to understand how entitlements work.
For example, in some states, if an employee has 10 years service the employer pays the employee their LSL and then they can claim the payment from the scheme.
Each state is different so it’s important to make sure you understand the entitlements in your state, it’s difficult to cover every circumstance in this article.
Please feel free to reach out if you need more advice about paying LSL or what you need to know about portable LSL.
https://www.facebook.com/MyHRPartnerAustralia
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karenhillen/
https://www.instagram.com/myhrpartnerau
