Guide
When can you take long service leave? The year it starts, by state
Updated
There are two different dates in long service leave: when you can take it, and when you would be paid it if you left. This page is about the first.
Talk to a specialist Weeks accrued, what you can take now, and what is payable if you left today.
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How this calculator works
- Long service leave in Australia is state and territory legislation, not federal: there is no single national entitlement, and this site does not publish one. The Fair Work Ombudsman says those laws set most employees' entitlement: how long you must work and how much you get (Fair Work Ombudsman: long service leave).
- New South Wales: the Long Service Leave Act 1955 gives full-time, part-time and casual workers 2 months (8.67 weeks) paid leave after 10 years' continuous service. Each further 5 years adds a month, which is 4 1/3 weeks. Pro-rata applies from 5 years only for a qualifying reason, and from 10 for any (NSW Industrial Relations).
- Victoria: most workers qualify after 7 years with one employer. Leave accrues at one week per 60 weeks of continuous service, about 0.866 of a week each year. No payment is due if employment ends before 7 years. From 7 years the full accrued but untaken entitlement is payable however employment ends (Workforce Inspectorate Victoria).
- Queensland: employees take 8.6667 weeks after 10 years' continuous service, and 4.3333 more after another 5 (13 in total). Beyond 15 years, leave can be taken as it accrues. Under 7 years there is none; from 7 to 10 years a pro-rata termination payment needs a qualifying reason, and from 10 it is automatic (Business Queensland).
- The accrual rate works out at about 0.867 of a week a year in all three states, so the weeks accrued column is effectively common ground. Everything that actually differs is in the qualifying period and the termination rules, which is why this calculator reports those separately.
- This tool covers NSW, Victoria and Queensland because those are the three schemes we have read end to end. The ACT, Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia have their own Acts with different qualifying periods and accrual rates, and we do not guess at them. The by-state guide names the responsible agency for each.
- Separate portable long service leave schemes apply in several industries, including building and construction, contract cleaning and community services. The black coal mining industry runs a national scheme through Coal LSL. If you have changed employers within one of those industries your entitlement may not come from the general state Act at all.
- Some employees take long service leave from a pre-modern award or an enterprise agreement instead of the state Act. The Fair Work Ombudsman says state and territory long service leave laws do not apply where entitlements sit in a federal pre-modern award covering the employer before 1 January 2010.
- Ordinary pay is defined differently in each state, and generally excludes overtime and shift penalties. NSW additionally takes the higher of ordinary remuneration at the prescribed date and the average over the previous five years for some workers. The single weekly figure here is an approximation: verify the rate before relying on a dollar amount.
- Continuous service is not the same as elapsed time. Agreed unpaid leave and unpaid parental leave commonly do not count as service in NSW even though they do not break it, which pushes a milestone later. Absences for illness or injury generally do count. Check your own absences against your state's rules before trusting a milestone date.
When do you get long service leave?
| State or territory | Leave can be taken from |
|---|---|
| Victoria | 7 years' continuous employment with one employer |
| Australian Capital Territory | 7 years' continuous service (6.0667 weeks) |
| New South Wales | 10 years' continuous service |
| Queensland | 10 years' continuous service |
| Tasmania | 10 years' continuous employment |
| Western Australia | 10 years' continuous employment |
| South Australia | Accrues at 1.3 weeks a year; the year leave can be taken is not on the page we read, ask SafeWork SA |
| Northern Territory | Not published on the page we read; ask the NT Government |
Sources: Business Victoria, WorkSafe ACT, Long Service Leave Act 1955 (NSW), Business Queensland, WorkSafe Tasmania, Private Sector Labour Relations WA and SafeWork SA.
When does long service leave start to accrue?
From your first day with the employer. What changes at 7 or 10 years is your right to use it, not the accrual. Victoria accrues one week for every 60 weeks from the start, and the 10 year Acts are built on the same rate of about 0.867 of a week a year.
Before the qualifying year, built-up leave is only paid out when employment ends, and in most states only for a qualifying reason.
When can you take it once you qualify?
- In Victoria, Business Victoria states that employees are entitled to apply for leave from the day they reach 7 years. An employer can also direct an employee to take it with at least 12 weeks' written notice.
- In New South Wales, s4(10) of the Act requires the employer to give the worker at least one month's notice of the date the leave is to start.
- After the first milestone, further leave in Queensland can be accessed as it accrues once 15 years is passed, and in NSW a further month follows each additional 5 years.
For what you are owed at your own years of service, use the long service leave calculator, or read the state guides for NSW, Victoria and Queensland.