In New South Wales the Long Service Leave Act 1955 gives 2 months (8⅔ weeks) of paid leave after 10 years with one employer (s 4(2)(a)(i)(A)). NSW also starts a proportionate payment earlier than most other jurisdictions: when you have at least 5 years of service, if the job ends for one of the reasons the Act lists (s 4(2)(a)(iii)).
2 months (8⅔ weeks)
of paid leave after 10 years of continuous service, and pro rata on listed grounds when you have at least 5 years of service
Ending between 5 and 10 years
When you have at least 5 years of service, the Act asks who ended the job and why. The same subparagraph pays a proportionate amount in two situations.
Section 4(2)(a)(iii): when pro rata is paid
Ended by the employer: terminated by the employer for any reason other than the worker’s serious and wilful misconduct
(s 4(2)(a)(iii))
Ended by the worker, or by death: by the worker on account of illness, incapacity or domestic or other pressing necessity, or by reason of the death of the worker
(s 4(2)(a)(iii))
So a redundancy, a dismissal for poor performance or the employer closing the business all carry a payment. So does resigning because you are ill, injured or facing a pressing domestic need, and so does the death of the worker. In this band the Act pays nothing for serious and wilful misconduct or an unlisted resignation, such as resigning to take another job or to retire.
The amount is worked out in proportion to 2 months for 10 years of service: your length of service, part years included, divided by 10 years, times 2 months (8⅔ weeks) (s 4(2)(a)(iii)). The regulator's guide puts the proof on each side: the employer has to prove misconduct that was both serious and wilful, and a worker who resigned has to prove one of the listed reasons (NSW Industrial Relations). A dismissal labelled "misconduct" does not settle the question on its own.
Worked example: made redundant after six years
You started on 4 March 2019 and your position was made redundant with your last day on 4 March 2025. That is 6 years of service, inside the band where the reason for the ending decides the outcome. Redundancy is an ending by the employer for a reason other than serious and wilful misconduct, so a proportionate amount is payable: 5⅕ weeks (our arithmetic: completed years from 4 March 2019 to 4 March 2025 ÷ 10 years × 2 × 4⅓ weeks = 5⅕ weeks), with a month counted as 4⅓ weeks (s 4(2)(a3)).
On an ordinary weekly pay of $1,480.00 the estimate is $7,696.00 (our arithmetic: completed years from 4 March 2019 to 4 March 2025 ÷ 10 years × 2 × 4⅓ weeks × $1,480.00 = $7,696.00). Had you resigned on the same day to take another job, no proportionate amount would be payable under the Act on those facts.
The regulator's guide works one example through the official calculator, for a period that ends part way through a year, and arrives at 4.76 weeks (NSW Government). For how this band compares with the rest of Australia, see pro rata long service leave.
From 10 years: whatever the reason
At 10 years the leave is yours to take, and the reason for leaving stops mattering: the regulator's guide says the payment is made however the employment ends (NSW Industrial Relations). That includes resigning, retiring and dismissal for serious and wilful misconduct.
After the first entitlement the Act adds 1 month (4⅓ weeks) for each further 5 years (s 4(2)(a)(i)(B)). If the job ends part way through a block, the part block is not lost: in the block straight after qualifying it is paid in proportion to 3 months for 15 years, and in later blocks in proportion to 2 months for 10 years (s 4(2)(a)(ii)). Both bases come to the same rate for each year served, so the amount is your years of service at that yearly rate.
Worked example: resigning after twelve years
You started on 1 July 2013 and resign with your last day on 1 July 2025: 12 years of service. You have taken no long service leave. Because you are past the qualifying period, your reason for resigning does not change the amount, which is 10⅖ weeks (our arithmetic: completed years from 1 July 2013 to 1 July 2025 ÷ 10 years × 2 × 4⅓ weeks = 10⅖ weeks).
At an ordinary weekly pay of $1,250.00, that is $13,000.00 (our arithmetic: completed years from 1 July 2013 to 1 July 2025 ÷ 10 years × 2 × 4⅓ weeks × $1,250.00 = $13,000.00) before tax. The money is ordinary pay for untaken leave, paid at once (s 4(5)(a)). Any leave you had already taken comes off.
If a worker dies with leave untaken, the money goes as a payment to the personal representative on request (s 4(5)(b)).
What counts as service
Service in this Act is wide: it means continuous service on any basis, casual included, under one contract or a chain of them (s 4(11)(a)).
- Re-employment. If the employer ends your job and takes you back within 2 months, the gap does not break your service (s 4(11)(a1)(vii)). Come back later than that and the count starts again.
- Interruptions that pause the clock. Several other absences in the same paragraph are interruptions that do not break service but are not counted (s 4(11)(a1)). The service before and after joins up, but the gap itself adds nothing.
- A new owner. Under the Act service continues across a transmission of business (s 4(11)(c)). A sale or other change of owner does not reset the count, so years with the old owner count with the new one.
Casual work is not a lesser kind of service here. If your casual shifts form an unbroken run with the same employer, they count. The hours side of that is on our casual and part-time page.
The rate you are paid
NSW does not simply use your pay on the day leave starts. Ordinary pay is the greater of the current rate and the 5-year average, which protects a worker whose hours or pay fell near the end (s 3(1) ordinary pay (a)). On top of that, average weekly bonuses are added. The same definition leaves out shift work, overtime and penalty rates, and the regulator's Long Service Leave Guide also lists expense allowances among the exclusions.
Where hours vary from week to week, the Act works from average weekly hours over 12 months or 5 years (s 3(2A)). For a worker who dropped from full-time to a few days a week late in their career, that look-back can make a real difference to the payment.
Taking the leave
- Notice. The employer sets the start date and must give you at least 1 month of notice, or less if you agree (s 4(10); s 4(10A)).
- Splitting it up. Leave can be taken in periods of at least 1 day by agreement (s 4(3AA)).
- Leave in advance. The Act allows leave in advance by agreement, before the entitlement falls due (s 4(3A)).
- Payment. Pay for the leave comes in full at the start, on normal pay days, or as agreed (s 4(7)).
- Public holidays. You get an extra day for each public holiday that falls during your leave, but only where the worker is entitled to payment for that day (s 4(4A)(b)).
- Annual leave. The Act keeps the two apart, with annual holidays on top of long service leave (s 4(4)).
No cashing out while you stay
The Act is strict on this: there is no payment instead of leave while employed (s 4(8)). An offer to "pay out" leave while you keep working is not something the Act allows, and a contract cannot change that, because the Act applies despite any contrary agreement (s 7(1)).
When an award or agreement applies instead
Section 4 gives way where a worker's long service leave comes from a more favourable award, agreement or other Act (s 5(1)). The test of being more favourable applies only to an award or agreement; leave provided by or under another Act takes the worker out of section 4 with no comparison. Whether a federal award or agreement takes the place of the state Act is a separate question, covered in the national overview.
Records, complaints and claims
Your employer must keep a long service leave record for 6 years after the worker leaves, and inspectors can ask to see it (s 8(3)). Breaches carry a penalty of up to 20 penalty units (s 10(1)).
The regulator for workers under this Act is NSW Industrial Relations (NSW Government). How to make a complaint is set out in Lodging a complaint with NSW Industrial Relations. If it comes to an order, section 12 lets a worker apply to the Local Court or the Industrial Relations Commission, and the claim can reach back over the 6 years before the application (s 12(1)).
The regulator also publishes its own Long Service Leave Calculator (NSW Industrial Relations). It asks for your dates and any days of interruption that do not count. The NSW legislation site carries the version in force of the Long Service Leave Act 1955, and the regulator's Long Service Leave Guide explains it section by section.
A portable scheme run by the Long Service Corporation may also cover you if you work in one of its industries: construction, contract cleaning and community services. See portable long service leave.
Sources
- Long Service Leave Act 1955, NSW Parliamentary Counsel's Office. Checked .
- Long Service Leave Guide, NSW Industrial Relations. Checked .
- Long service leave, NSW Government. Checked .
- Lodging a complaint with NSW Industrial Relations, NSW Industrial Relations. Checked .
- Long Service Leave Calculator, NSW Industrial Relations. Checked .
- Portable long service schemes in NSW, Long Service Corporation (NSW Government). Checked .