The total ordinary hours used in the calculation will include both the hours while employed as a full-time employee as well as those while employed as a casual or regular part-time employee. From the 3 June 2001, long service leave entitlement in Queensland is just over eight weeks (or more specifically, eight and two third weeks) after a period of 10 years of continuous employment. Beyond ten years of continuous service, employees are entitled to further long service leave for each additional five years of continuous service. Approved long service leave payments will be directly credited to workers’ bank accounts.
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If you’ve been with the same employer for 10 years, you’re entitled to 2 months (8.67 weeks) paid leave, to be paid at your ordinary gross weekly wage. The updated legislation will impact the Long Service Leave entitlements of all Victorian employees who were previously covered by the Long Service Leave Act 1992, according to senior employment adviser, from Employsure, Natalie Clark. An employee who has 10 or more years’ continuous service, has an automatic entitlement to the payment of long service leave on termination of employment and this is not subject to the above listed criteria. Long service leave is paid at the ordinary rate (i.e. excluding overtime payments) being paid to the employee at the time of taking the leave.
This means that you may qualify for statutory maternity leave and pay in the same way as permanent employees. Although statutory maternity leave will come to an end on the expiry of your fixed-term contract, the right to statutory maternity pay continues if you already qualify for it. Payment for leave – your employees are entitled to receive payment for leave, including sick leave, annual leave and long service leave.
Most NSW full-time, part-time or casual employees are entitled to this leave, which is set at 2 months (8.67 weeks), at the employee’s ordinary gross weekly wage. Further paid leave needs to be provided after each additional period of 5 years’ service.
As from 30 March 1994, all continuous service of a casual employee is taken into account when calculating long service leave entitlements. A casual employee employed from 23 June 1990 accrued long service leave if they were regularly employed by the same employer for at least 32 hours (in total, not per week) in each consecutive period of 4 weeks. However, the continuous service ends if the employment is broken by more than 3 months between the end of one employment contract and the start of the next. Once workers have completed seven years of service in the construction industry (even among different employers) they can make a claim for long-service leave. For every additional year after the first seven, workers receive an additional 1.3 weeks of leave.
Employees may have an entitlement to receive proportionate payment of long service leave on termination of employment after completing 7 years continuous service. Long service leave entitlements for employees who have had a mixture of employment status (full-time, casual or regular part-time) during their continuous service are calculated using the method outlined below.
Permanent employees who are on part time hours can claim their Long Service Leave; the rate of pay per week of long service leave will be paid out as if that worker is working a full time week. Whether that week is classed as a 36, 38, or 40 hour week will be determined by your payslips.
The payments are made monthly in arrears and are dependent on the number of weeks worked on a commercial construction site during the monthly invoice period. The funds created by these contributions provide redundancy payments and a range of other benefits and services to construction industry workers. You may have employees working for your business that have worked with you for a long period of time. Depending on where your business operates, these employees are entitled to certain things, one of them being long service leave. So it is important as an employer that you’re both aware and able to deliver on these entitlements.
Workers only need 7 years of active service to gain a minimum entitlement to long service leave under the CoINVEST scheme.
After the completion of 10 years’ service, the entitlement for pro-rata long service leave is based on the employee’s full period of continuous service. For example, an employee who had 12 years’ service would be entitled to a payment of 10.4 weeks’ long service leave (8.6667 + 1.73333 weeks).
What is CoINVEST?
CoINVEST is a compulsory part of the construction industry in Victoria. The employer then pays a contribution fee into the Long Service Leave Fund so that we can ensure CoINVEST is sufficiently funded to be able to pay out claims to all eligible workers when they make their claim for Long Service Leave.
- Any period of employment where five or more days of covered work are performed is counted towards long service leave entitlement.
- CoINVEST is the construction industry long-service leave fund in Victoria, governed by the Construction Industry Long Service Leave Act 1997.
- CoINVEST is portable Long Service Leave – this means it does not matter how many times workers change employers, as long as they remain in the construction industry performing covered work.
After seven years of working in the construction industry, workers can claim their long- service leave from CoINVEST. As such, all employers who perform covered work are required to record with CoINVEST how many days each worker has performed – this is done quarterly and builds up your record of service. The employer then pays a contribution fee into the Long Service Leave Fund so that we can ensure CoINVEST is sufficiently funded to be able to pay out claims to all eligible workers when they make their claim for Long Service Leave. Each month, employers make redundancy contribution payments to Incolink on behalf of their employees.
The Long Service Leave Act
CoINVEST will calculate the rate of pay by determining an average using the last 260 days of recorded service. In instances where the service has not been reported at the time of the worker submitting a claim, the employer must be contacted to request details of your recent days and wages for the current reporting period.
CoINVEST is portable Long Service Leave – this means it does not matter how many times workers change employers, as long as they remain in the construction industry performing covered work. Any period of employment where five or more days of covered work are performed is counted towards long service leave entitlement. CoINVEST is the construction industry long-service leave fund in Victoria, governed by the Construction Industry Long Service Leave Act 1997. The scheme was established in 1976 to ensure workers in the construction industry would have access to long-service leave, even if they didn’t remain with a single employer for the required seven years. CoINVEST operates as a fund into which employers pay a quarterly contribution fee proportionate to the size of their workforce’s total wages.
If an employee is paid above the award rate, the long service leave is to be paid at the higher rate. Employees are entitled to take 8.6667 weeks of paid long service leave after a period of 10 years’ continuous service. That said, if it is not really an independent contractor arrangement, but actually an employer/employee fixed-term employment contract, then usual leave entitlements would apply.
Workers are allowed a longer break between employment periods
The death of an employee is deemed to be the same as termination of the employment, such as is the case with annual leave. Under the Act, employees are entitled to eight and two thirds weeks of long service leave upon the completion of at least 10 years of continuous employment with their employer.
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Once you’ve got seven years of accrued service, you can claim your Long Service Leave entitlement at any time. However, if you never accrue seven years of service, you will never be eligible to claim Long Service Leave. CoINVEST also has a death benefit for the estate of registered workers, provided the worker accrued at least 55 days of recognised service within four years of passing away. Long service leave is a period of paid leave you must provide an employee after 10 years’ continuous service with you.
If you still have payslips from your most recent construction role as an employee, you must provide these with your claim application. This part of the claim payment is classed as a taxable income, therefore tax will be withheld and you will be issued a payment summary detailing the amount of tax withheld in your claim.
You need to provide your BSB number and account details on the application form, as well as your Tax File Number. If you have registered a valid email address against your CoINVEST account, we will email you when your claim has been approved with a prospective payment date. Most full-time, part-time or casual employees in NSW are entitled to long service leave.
On top of this, they are entitled to four and one third weeks for each additional five years of service after the initial 10 years. However, if you are an employer in the mining industry, please note that separate provisions under this Act apply to mining employees.
Our Claiming Long Service Leave page has explanations of each different claim type, whether you are a permanent or casual employee, unemployed, or leaving the industry altogether. Rates of pay are calculated differently for night-shift, casual and part-time, offshore workers and those who have worked on the desalination plant. Workers only need seven years of service in the industry to take long service leave.