Life in Australia Guide

Long Service Leave (LSL) is paid leave granted to workers who have worked continuously for one employer over a long period. It's a distinctly Australian scheme that even migrant workers who have lived and worked here for 10 years or more often don't know about. The important point is that it is not a nationwide employment standard (NES) but is governed by the independent legislation of each state and territory. As a result, the qualifying years, the amount of leave that accrues, and the conditions for pro-rata early access differ by state and are amended from time to time. Here we cover the big picture of eligibility, early settlement, and portable LSL, where accrual continues even when you change jobs within an industry.

The key criterion for LSL is continuous service. The general picture is that you become entitled to paid LSL after completing around 7 to 10 years under the same employer, but the exact number of years and the amount of leave that accrues differ by state and territory. Approved paid leave and some unpaid leave do not break service, whereas long voluntary gaps can reset it. Don't guess the figures based on another state — confirm them in your state's legislation.

If you're in a portable LSL industry, accrual builds up with the state statutory body, not the employer. It's therefore important to keep track of your registration and accrued credit yourself. Prepare for worker/employer registration, service credit lookups, and keeping your work records.

• Check whether your industry is covered by portable LSL (construction, contract cleaning, security, community services, etc. — varies by state)
• Verify whether you are registered as a worker with the relevant state statutory body (CoINVEST (VIC), Long Service Corporation (NSW), QLeave (QLD), MyLeave (WA), ACT Leave, etc.)
• Regularly check your accrued service credit (days of service) and your employer's reporting, and keep your payslips and work records

Long service leave broadly falls into four situations. Check which one applies to you and take the necessary steps.

Check, in order, the parts that are easy to miss in practice.

• First, based on your state/territory, check the LSL legislation, qualifying years, and pro-rata conditions (beware of wrongly applying another state's criteria).
• If your industry is covered by portable LSL, register as a worker with the relevant authority and check that your employer is reporting properly.
• Keep your payslips, start date, and work records so you can prove your continuous service yourself.
• Regularly check your accrued credit on the authority's portal, and confirm whether accrual will carry over before changing employers or moving industries.
• When applying to take leave or for a termination settlement, finalise the taxation and ETP treatment by confirming with a registered tax agent and the final-pay guide.

Here are misconceptions that even long-term residents often fall into.

• Confusing LSL with NES annual leave — LSL is a separate scheme under state/territory legislation and accrues independently of annual leave.
• Assuming service always resets when you change jobs — in portable industries accrual is preserved, but if you don't register, your credit is left out.
• Presuming you're never eligible because you're casual or on a temporary visa — whether casual work counts differs by state and the criterion is continuous service, so you must check the state legislation directly.
• Applying another state's years and figures as-is — eligibility and pro-rata thresholds differ by state, so you must judge based only on your state's authority and legislation.
• Calculating tax on an LSL payout on your own — taxation and ETP are financial/tax judgments, so leave them to the final-pay guide plus a registered tax agent.