Purpose:

The purpose of this Act is to make provision with respect to the long service leave entitlements of certain employees, including public and private sector employees and police officers, and to repeal the Long Service Leave Act 1992.

Objectives:

• To establish entitlements for long service leave for employees after completing 7 years of continuous employment.
• To outline the calculation of long service leave, including periods of continuous employment and ordinary pay.
• To specify processes for taking long service leave, including employee requests and employer directions.
• To ensure payment of long service leave entitlements, including upon cessation of employment or death of an employee.
• To preserve superior or accrued long service leave entitlements from previous awards or agreements.
• To regulate disclosure requirements for workplace agreements that modify or remove long service leave entitlements.
• To establish enforcement mechanisms, including the jurisdiction of the Industrial Division of the Magistrates’ Court and powers of authorised officers.
• To define and prohibit offences related to long service leave, such as payments in lieu, working during leave, adverse action, and record-keeping failures.

Key Provisions:

• Entitlement to Long Service Leave (Section 6): An employee is entitled to long service leave equal to 1/60th of their total continuous employment after 7 years with one employer.
• Payment on Cessation of Employment or Death (Sections 9 & 10): Specifies the requirement for employers to pay the full long service leave entitlement if employment ends or an employee dies before taking leave.
• Meaning of “One Employer” (Section 11): Defines situations where an employee is considered to have been employed by one employer despite changes in ownership or asset transfers, preserving long service leave continuity.
• Meaning of “Continuous Employment” (Sections 12, 13, 14): Details which periods of absence from work are taken or not taken to be periods of employment for calculating continuous service, including provisions for casual or seasonal employees and various forms of leave.
• Calculation of “Ordinary Pay” and “Normal Weekly Hours” (Sections 15, 16, 17): Provides methods for determining an employee’s ordinary pay and normal weekly hours for long service leave payment, especially when rates are not fixed or hours change.
• Request and Direction to Take Leave (Sections 18 & 19): Allows employees to request leave and employers to direct employees to take leave with 12 weeks’ written notice, subject to reasonable business grounds for refusal.
• Payment While on Leave (Sections 20 & 21): Requires employers to pay long service leave in agreed ways or in full at the start of leave, and to adjust payments for pay increases during leave.
• Contracting Out Prohibited (Section 23): States that provisions in employment agreements that annul, vary, or exclude the Act’s provisions are of no effect, unless the entitlements are more favourable to the employee.
• Industrial Division of the Magistrates’ Court Jurisdiction (Section 24): Grants specific jurisdiction to the Court for matters related to long service leave entitlements, payments, refusals, and enforcement.
• Authorised Officers Powers (Section 31): Empowers authorised officers to require information or documents for monitoring compliance.
• Offences and Penalties (Sections 34, 35, 36, 37, 38): Outlines specific offences such as forbidden payments in lieu, working during leave, adverse action, and failures regarding long service leave records, with associated penalties.
• Preservation of Superior and Accrued Entitlements (Parts 4 & 5): Ensures that more beneficial long service leave entitlements under certain awards or agreements, and protected accrued entitlements, are maintained.
• Disclosure Requirements for Workplace Agreements (Section 50): Mandates employers to notify employees in writing if a proposed employment agreement modifies or removes long service leave entitlements.

Evidence of Compliance Requirements For Agricultural Organisations:

• Payment of Accrued Long Service Leave on Termination:
  • Action Required: If an employee’s employment ends (other than due to death) before all entitled long service leave is taken, the employer must pay the full amount of the employee’s long service leave entitlement, calculated as at the day employment ends.
  • Timeframe: Payment is due and payable on the day employment ends.
  • Requirement Detail: The obligation to pay continues from the day the entitlement accrues until the full amount is paid.
• Payment of Accrued Long Service Leave on Employee Death:
  • Action Required: If an employee dies before taking all entitled long service leave, the employer must pay the full amount still owed to the employee’s personal representative.
  • Measurement Standards: Ordinary pay is calculated as the amount the employee was entitled to receive at the time of death for normal weekly hours at the ordinary rate of pay. Any averages for ordinary pay or normal weekly hours (under sections 15 or 16) are to be taken over the 52 weeks immediately before the employee’s death.
• Honouring Accrued Leave Upon Business Change of Ownership/Asset Transfer:
  • Action Required: If the ownership of a business or its assets changes, the new owner/employer must not refuse to provide the employee any long service leave to which the employee is entitled, including leave accrued before the change.
• Responding to Employee Leave Requests:
  • Action Required: An employer must grant an employee’s request to take long service leave (for a period of not less than 1 day) as soon as practicable after receiving the request.
  • Exception: An employer may refuse the request only if they have reasonable business grounds for doing so.
• Directing Employees to Take Leave:
  • Action Required: If an employer directs an employee to take long service leave, they must provide at least 12 weeks’ written notice.
• Payment During Long Service Leave:
  • Action Required: An employer must give an employee the pay they are entitled to for long service leave in a way and at a time agreed upon by both parties before the leave starts.
  • Default Payment: If no agreement exists, payment must be made in full when the employee starts the leave, or at the same time and in the same manner as if the employee were not taking leave.
• Adjusting Pay for Increases While on Leave:
  • Action Required: If the employee’s ordinary pay increases while on long service leave, the employer must pay the employee at the increased rate from the time of the increase.
  • Timeframe: If the employee was paid in full or in advance, the additional amount must be paid as soon as the relevant period ends.
• Responding to Half-Pay Leave Requests:
  • Action Required: An employer must grant an employee’s request for a period of long service leave twice as long as the entitlement at half the ordinary pay rate.
  • Exception: An employer may refuse the request only if they have reasonable business grounds for doing so.
• Prohibition on Payments in Lieu:
  • Action Required: An employer must not give an employee a payment in lieu of long service leave, or any part of it, unless explicitly permitted by the Act or a relevant fair work instrument.
• Prohibition on Knowingly Employing During Leave:
  • Action Required: A person must not knowingly employ another person for hire or reward during the hours that other person is taking long service leave.
• Prohibition on Adverse Action:
  • Action Required: An employer must not take adverse action (e.g., dismissal, injury in employment, prejudice, discrimination, false representation of entitlements) against an employee because the employee is entitled to long service leave, seeks to exercise their entitlement, makes an inquiry about entitlement, or applies to the Magistrates’ Court regarding a leave direction.
• Compliance with Authorised Officer Requirements:
  • Action Required: A person must comply with a written notice from an authorised officer to give information or produce documents within a reasonable period specified in the notice.
  • Documentation Needed: Any information or documents in the custody or control of the person that the authorised officer requires for monitoring compliance.
  • Record-keeping: Records or other documents required to be kept under the Act must be produced even if they might incriminate the person.
• Long Service Leave Record-Keeping:
  • Action Required: An employer must keep a “long service leave record” (including any register, certificate, notice, pay sheet, or other document relating to an employee’s long service leave entitlement) for each employee.
  • Timeframe: Records must be kept during the employee’s period of continuous employment and for at least 7 years after the employee stops working for the employer.
  • Accessibility: Records must be kept so that they are able to be readily produced to an authorised officer if required.
• Accuracy of Long Service Leave Records:
  • Action Required: A person must not make, without reasonable excuse, any false or misleading statement in, or any material omission from, a long service leave record.
• Providing Copies of Records:
  • Action Required: An employer must not refuse a request by an employee (or their personal representative) to provide a copy of their long service leave record.
• Disclosure of Modified or Removed Entitlements:
  • Action Required: At least 7 days before entering into an employment agreement that would modify or remove an employee’s entitlements under this Act, the employer must notify the employee in writing of the modification or removal.
  • Documentation Needed: The written notice must clearly state whether the proposed agreement modifies or removes entitlements such as the right to long service leave after 7 years of continuous service or any entitlements arising from the preservation sections (47 or 49).

Metadata Keywords:

Long service leave, employment, employee entitlements, employer obligations, industrial relations, Victoria, record keeping, continuous employment, workplace agreements, compliance

Publication Information:

Assent Date: 15 May 2018 Commencement Date: 1 November 2018 Authorised Version No.: 004, incorporating amendments as at 1 July 2021

Agricultural Industry Alignment:

Beef & Veal, Chicken, Coarse Grains, Cotton, Dairy, Eggs, Fisheries, Forestry, Horticulture, Oilseeds, Pig, Sheep Meat, Sugar, Wheat, Wine, Wool.

Date Added to database:

This document was parsed and added to the database on 25-07-2025

URL:

https://content.legislation.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-06/18-12aa004%20authorised.pdf →