Guide
Long service leave by state and territory: who to ask
Updated
The single most common mistake in Australian long service leave is answering a question about one state with the rules of another.
It is not federal law
The Fair Work Ombudsman states that most employees' entitlement to long service leave comes from long service leave laws in each state or territory, and that those laws set both how long an employee must work to get long service leave and how much they get (Fair Work Ombudsman: long service leave). It also notes that in some states and territories, long serving casuals are eligible.
Who to contact
The Fair Work Ombudsman directs enquiries to the long service leave agency in each state or territory:
| State or territory | Agency |
|---|---|
| Australian Capital Territory | WorkSafe ACT |
| New South Wales | NSW Industrial Relations |
| Northern Territory | NT Government |
| Queensland | Queensland Industrial Relations |
| South Australia | SafeWork SA |
| Tasmania | WorkSafe Tasmania |
| Victoria | Workforce Inspectorate Victoria |
| Western Australia | Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety |
This site's calculator covers New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland only, because those are the three schemes we have read in full and can reproduce against the regulators' own worked examples. For the ACT, Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia, we do not publish a figure rather than guess one: contact the agency above, which publishes its own entitlement rules and, in most cases, its own calculator.
Three things that override the state Act
- Pre-modern awards
- The Fair Work Ombudsman states that state and territory long service leave laws do not apply where long service leave entitlements sit in a federal pre-modern award that would have covered the employer and employees before 1 January 2010. Its example is a part-time worker of 12 years at a Victorian butcher covered by the Meat Award, whose entitlement comes from the pre-modern award rather than Victorian legislation.
- Enterprise agreements
- An enterprise agreement can carry its own long service leave terms. Where they are more favourable than the state Act, they apply; where they are less favourable, they may be invalid and the Act may apply instead.
- Portable schemes
- Building and construction, contract cleaning, security and community services run portable schemes in several states, letting workers accumulate recognised service across employers in the same industry. The black coal mining industry runs a national scheme under Commonwealth legislation through Coal LSL.
Working across state lines
Where service has been performed partly outside the state, the states do not apply the same test. NSW asks whether the service had a substantial connection with NSW at the time it occurred, weighing where the contract was made and where directions came from. Victoria asks whether the employment was in and of Victoria. Queensland's Court of Appeal held in 2025 that a substantial connection test is not imported into its Act at all, and that service partly in the State is enough. The same career can therefore produce three different answers.
If you have worked for one employer across more than one state, get the position confirmed by the agency for the state where you are claiming before relying on any calculator, including this one.