State guide
Long service leave Victoria: 7 years, and one week per 60
Updated
Victoria is the most generous of the three schemes on this site, and the simplest to calculate once you are past 7 years.
The entitlement
The Workforce Inspectorate states that most Victorian workers qualify for long service leave if they have worked continuously with one employer for at least 7 years, covering full time, part time, casual, seasonal and fixed term work, and that leave accrues at a rate of one week for every 60 weeks of continuous service, about 0.866 of a week each year (Workforce Inspectorate Victoria).
The regulator's worked examples
- Jenny, 8 years and 6 weeks at a chemist
- 8 years multiplied by 52 weeks is 416 weeks, plus 6 weeks is 422 weeks, divided by 60 gives 7 weeks. Jenny can take up to 7 weeks of long service leave.
- Jacqui, resigning after 7 years and 6 months
- 364 weeks plus 26 weeks is 390 weeks, divided by 60 gives 6.5 weeks, payable on the day her employment ends.
- Marcus, resigning after 6 years and 11 months, paid in lieu of notice
- Because his employment ended before 7 years, he has no entitlement at all. Had he worked out his notice he would have crossed 7 years and been paid.
- Jayne, retiring after 22 years having taken 6 weeks at year 8
- 1,144 weeks divided by 60 gives 19.1 weeks, less the 6 weeks taken, leaves 13.1 weeks payable.
The calculator on this page reproduces Jenny's 7.03 weeks, Jacqui's 6.5 weeks and Jayne's balance of 13.07 weeks. The small difference on Jayne is rounding: the Workforce Inspectorate rounds to one decimal at the halfway step, this calculator rounds at the end.
Termination is unconditional after 7 years
This is where Victoria diverges from NSW and Queensland. On the day employment ends, an employee with at least 7 years' continuous employment is deemed to have started taking long service leave and is entitled to payment for the full amount of accrued but untaken leave. The Workforce Inspectorate is explicit that this applies whether the employee has resigned, been terminated, been made redundant or has died. No qualifying reason is required.
It is also an offence not to pay it on the day employment ends, carrying 12 penalty units for a natural person and 60 for a body corporate, applying for each day the offence continues.
Contracting out does not work
The Workforce Inspectorate gives the example of an employee who signed a contract clause saying she would not be entitled to long service leave if she left before ten years, resigned after eight, and was still entitled to payment for seven weeks: contract terms less favourable than the Act are invalid. A settlement agreement offering less than the accrued entitlement does not bind the employee either.
Other Victorian rules worth knowing
- An employer can direct an employee to take long service leave by giving at least 12 weeks' written notice.
- Leave can be taken at half pay by agreement, so 13 weeks accrued can be taken as 26 weeks at half pay. Taking half the leave at double pay is not permitted.
- For casual and seasonal workers, employment is deemed continuous provided there is no absence of more than 12 weeks between engagements, with several exceptions including seasonal factors and up to 104 weeks of parental leave.
- In most circumstances it is an offence to give or receive payment instead of the employee actually taking the break.
Workers covered by the Construction Industry Long Service Leave Act 1997 (Vic), and the portable schemes for contract cleaning, security and community services, sit outside the general Act.