Portable long service leave schemes

In some industries long service leave follows the worker, not the employer. A portable scheme keeps a record of your service across every employer in the industry, so changing jobs, which is normal on building sites and in cleaning or community work, does not wipe out the years you have built up. As the New South Wales government puts it, portable long service counts service within an industry rather than with one employer (Long Service Corporation).

Each scheme is set up by its own Act and run by its own body, which keeps the record of your service and the money the employers pay into it. The general state and territory Acts on the national page still cover everyone outside these industries.

The schemes, state by state

Victoria has two separate bodies: LeavePlus for construction and the Portable Long Service Authority for the other three industries. They are not the same scheme. TasBuild describes itself as a private trustee company running the 1997 scheme (TasBuild). In the ACT, contract cleaning became part of a wider services scheme on 1 April 2025, and ACT Leave says that scheme is to take in hairdressing and beauty, food and accommodation services from 1 January 2027 (ACT Leave).

The Northern Territory passed an Act for a community services scheme, but the Territory's legislation register lists a repeal Act that commenced on 30 May 2025 (NT Legislation). NT Build runs one scheme, for construction.

What each scheme pays, by its authority's own figures

A portable scheme counts service in its own units, often days or credits of recorded service rather than years with one employer, so its thresholds do not always line up with the general Act. These are the entitlements each authority states, with its own rounding and its own hedging words, such as “about”; a decimal that stands for a common fraction of a week is written here as that fraction:

• New South Wales, building and construction: 8⅔ weeks after 10 years of recognised service (Long Service Corporation).
• New South Wales, contract cleaning: 8⅔ weeks after 10 years of recognised service (Long Service Corporation).
• New South Wales, community services: about 6.1 weeks after 7 years of recognised service (Long Service Corporation).
• Victoria, construction: a claim after 7 years of service, with breaks of up to 4 years without losing credits (LeavePlus).
• Victoria, community services, contract cleaning and security: 1 week for every 60 weeks of recorded work, after 7 years (Portable Long Service Authority). A registration may become inactive after more than 4 consecutive years out (Portable Long Service Authority).
• Queensland, building and construction: 8⅔ weeks after 2,200 service credits (QLeave).
• Queensland, contract cleaning: 8⅔ weeks after 10 years of recorded service (QLeave).
• Queensland, community services: 6.1 weeks after 7 years of recorded service (QLeave).
• Western Australia, construction: 8⅔ weeks after 10 years, pro rata after 7 (MyLeave).
• South Australia, construction: 13 weeks after 2,600 service days (Consumer and Business Services).
• South Australia, community services: the Act gives 13 weeks after 120 months of effective service (Portable LSL Act 2024 (SA) s 37(1)).
• Tasmania, construction: TasBuild funds up to 13 weeks of leave when a worker reaches 2,600 days of reported relevant employment (TasBuild).
• ACT, building and construction: 13 weeks after 10 years of recorded service (ACT Leave).
• ACT, community sector: 4⅓ weeks after 5 years of recorded service (ACT Leave).
• ACT, security: 6.06 weeks after 7 years of recorded service (ACT Leave).
• ACT, services: 6.06 weeks after 7 years of recorded service (ACT Leave).
• Northern Territory, construction: 65 days after 10 years, or 2,200 service days (NT Build). NT Build also lists two earlier payments:
  • 45.5 days after 7 years (1,540 service days), once the worker has stopped construction work
  • 32.5 days after 5 years (1,100 service days), once the worker has been de-registered for at least 2 years (NT Build)

Who pays into the fund

The money comes from employers, as a levy on wages paid to the authority, not from your pay. The rates below are the ones published when each source was checked, and authorities change them. Victoria's construction scheme levies 2.7% of total ordinary pay (LeavePlus). Western Australia's levy is 0.75% for the 2027 calendar year (MyLeave). South Australia's construction scheme levies 2% of wages paid (Consumer and Business Services). For South Australia's community services scheme, the government announced registration from 1 October 2025, with a 2.2% levy (SA Government).

Some schemes are recent. Victoria's multi-industry scheme started on 1 July 2019, while Queensland's cleaning scheme was introduced in 2005 (Portable Long Service Authority; QLeave).

How a portable scheme sits beside the state Act

Where both could apply, the question is whether the same years can be paid under both. In New South Wales, the general Act provides no second payment for a period a portable scheme has paid (LSL Act 1955 (NSW) s 4B(3)). The Northern Territory government counts NT Build workers among the groups outside its general Act; the full list is on the Northern Territory page.

Black coal mining (national)

Coal mining has one scheme for the whole country, under the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Administration Act 1992, run by Coal LSL. Leave is available after 8 years of qualifying service, sooner in some cases (Coal LSL).

• It covers employees working in the operation of a black coal mine.
• Payment before 8 years: redundancy after at least 6 years, ill health, or retirement at 60 or over (Coal LSL Administration Act 1992 (Cth) ss 39CA and 39CB)
• For casuals, the Act provides that casuals count for each week they are eligible (Coal LSL Administration Act 1992 (Cth) s 39A(3)).
• Under the Act, a public holiday in the leave is not counted as leave (Coal LSL Administration Act 1992 (Cth) s 39AE(1)).

How a claim works

1. The table above names the industries each scheme covers; the authority's own site defines covered work in detail.
2. The authority holds the record of your service, built from what each employer reports and pays.
3. A claim goes to the authority, through its own process, when you reach the threshold in the list above.
4. Service outside the scheme, with a single employer, falls under the general Act on your state page, and the calculator applies it.

Sources

1. Portable long service schemes in NSW, Long Service Corporation (NSW Government). Checked 14 November 2026.
2. About Long Service Corporation, Long Service Corporation. Checked 14 November 2026.
3. How LeavePlus works, LeavePlus (CoINVEST Limited). Checked 14 November 2026.
4. About the Portable Long Service Authority, Portable Long Service Authority (Victoria). Checked 14 November 2026.
5. How portable long service leave works (contract cleaning), QLeave. Checked 14 November 2026.
6. QLeave: portable long service leave in Queensland, Business Queensland. Checked 14 November 2026.
7. Our organisation, QLeave. Checked 15 November 2026.
8. MyLeave: Construction Long Service WA, Government of Western Australia (Private Sector Labour Relations). Checked 14 November 2026.
9. Coverage of the Long Service Leave Act, Government of Western Australia (Private Sector Labour Relations). Checked 14 November 2026.
10. Construction Industry: Portable Long Service Leave, Consumer and Business Services (SA). Checked 14 November 2026.
11. Portable long service scheme starts for community workers, Government of South Australia. Checked 14 November 2026.
12. Portable Long Service Leave Act 2024, South Australian Legislation. Checked 14 November 2026.
13. Tasmania's Portable Long Service Leave Scheme, TasBuild Limited. Checked 14 November 2026.
14. ACT Leave, ACT Leave (ACT Government). Checked 14 November 2026.
15. Long service leave, WorkSafe ACT. Checked 14 November 2026.
16. About us, NT Build. Checked 14 November 2026.
17. Acts by year and by title, Northern Territory Legislation. Checked 15 November 2026.
18. Building and construction industry long service payments scheme, NSW Government (Long Service Corporation). Checked 15 November 2026.
19. Contract cleaning industry portable long service leave scheme, NSW Government (Long Service Corporation). Checked 15 November 2026.
20. Community services industry portable long service leave scheme, NSW Government (Long Service Corporation). Checked 15 November 2026.
21. Claiming your portable long service, Portable Long Service Authority. Checked 15 November 2026.
22. How the Portable Long Service Benefits Scheme works, Portable Long Service Authority. Checked 15 November 2026.
23. How portable long service leave works (building and construction), QLeave. Checked 15 November 2026.
24. How portable long service leave works (community services), QLeave. Checked 15 November 2026.
25. About TasBuild, TasBuild. Checked 15 November 2026.
26. Claiming portable long service leave in the building and construction industry, ACT Leave. Checked 15 November 2026.
27. Claiming portable long service leave in the community sector industry, ACT Leave. Checked 15 November 2026.
28. Claiming portable long service leave in the security industry, ACT Leave. Checked 15 November 2026.
29. Claiming portable long service leave in the services industry, ACT Leave. Checked 15 November 2026.
30. About the Portable Long Service Benefits Scheme, Portable Long Service Authority (Victoria). Checked 14 November 2026.
31. Long Service Leave Act 1955, NSW Parliamentary Counsel's Office. Checked 14 November 2026.
32. Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Administration Act 1992, Federal Register of Legislation. Checked 14 November 2026.
33. Coal LSL, Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Funding Corporation. Checked 14 November 2026.