Long service leave

Currently there is no uniform national long service leave standard in Australia; the rules governing long service leave entitlements vary depending on the relevant jurisdiction or industrial instrument (e.g., award or enterprise agreement). The qualifying period of service ranges from seven to fifteen years, although, as noted, in most instances it is no higher than ten. The initial period of leave granted to eligible employees varies between around six and thirteen weeks. Long service leave legislation in many of the states and territories goes on to provide further long service leave entitlements should the employee continue to work with the employer.

Long service leave taken or cashed out is generally paid at the employee's ordinary pay rate, being the base hourly rate or salary stripped of any allowances, penalties, shift loading or overtime that they may otherwise be entitled to. Unused long service leave is paid out to employees when terminated. Normally employees who terminate before reaching the length of service required to access long service leave do not receive any payment related to long service leave notionally accrued during their employment. However, some state legislation contains limited exceptions to this rule.

The Institute of Actuaries of Australia estimated that the total value of long service leave benefits in Australia was around $16.5 billion in 2001.

There has been a debate in Australia about the protection of employee entitlements (including long service leave) in the event of employer insolvency, with some high-profile cases involving employees losing benefits that had been accrued.

Long service leave entitlements

Australian long service legislation is currently in a transitional state, pending development of a uniform national standard.

Most employee's entitlements arise from state or territory legislation.

For employees in industries or occupations covered by industrial awards, long service leave entitlements are determined by the award if the award includes long service leave terms. If the award does not consider long service leave entitlements, employees under this award should instead refer to state or territory legislation. Note that only pre-modern awards (industrial awards which existed prior to 1 January 2010) contain terms regarding entitlements. Modern awards do not include long service leave content. As such, these are being slowly phased out to allow for a new, centralised system.

For all other employees, minimum entitlements are derived from the relevant state or territory long service leave laws.

See below for a high level summary of long service leave legislation in each state or territory:

• Commonwealth (applies to federal public servants): 3 months on full pay after 10 years' continuous service. However should a person join the Commonwealth from a State government that provides LSL at a rate greater than the Commonwealth and the person utilised that LSL before joining the Commonwealth, the Commonwealth will permanently withhold some of the person's Commonwealth LSL due to the way they interpret section 18(1) of the LSL Act. This is because an allowance for the different accrual rates is no longer made. In effect, a person can work for the Commonwealth for 10 years and accrue 90 days of LSL but will only have 63 days available; the other 27 days is permanently withheld.
• Australian Capital Territory: 6.066 weeks after 7 years' continuous service. For each year thereafter, employees are entitled to a further LSL accrual, at a rate of 1/5 of a month LSL per year.
• New South Wales: 2 months' leave after 10 years' continuous service. One month's leave for each subsequent 5 years of continuous service. Pro-rata payment on termination if they have completed at least five years of service with their employer, and were was dismissed for a reason other than misconduct, or resigned due to illness, injury, other pressing necessity, or the death of a coworker.
• Northern Territory: 13 weeks after 10 years' continuous service.
• Queensland: 8.6667 weeks after 10 years' continuous service. 5 years after that, a further 4.3333 weeks. Employees who complete at least 7 years of continuous service may receive a pro-rata payment on termination if they were dismissed for a reason other than their conduct, capacity or performance; they resigned due to illness, injury, other pressing necessity, or they were terminated by their death.
• South Australia: 13 weeks after 10 years' continuous service. 1.3 weeks for each subsequent year of service. A pro-rata payment is available for employees who terminate after 7 years continuous service.
• Tasmania: 8+2/3 weeks in respect of the first 10 years of continuous service and 4+1/3 weeks in respect of every subsequent 5 years of continuous service. (For mining workers, the entitlement is 13 weeks in respect of every 10 years of continuous service.)
• Victoria: Accrues at a rate of one week for each 60 weeks of continuous employment (approximately 0.866 weeks per year), and can be taken any time after 7 years' continuous service.
• Western Australia: 8.6667 weeks after each period of 10 years' continuous service.