Portable long service leave: how it works in each state

What a portable scheme does

A body that its own law sets up runs each scheme. Examples are the Long Service Corporation in NSW, LeavePlus and the Portable Long Service Authority in Victoria, and QLeave in Queensland. Other examples are MyLeave in WA, TasBuild in Tasmania, ACT Leave and NT Build.

Employers pay a levy to fund the scheme.

The scheme records your service in days, credits or quarters. When you qualify, the scheme usually pays you directly. Black coal mining uses a different method. Your employer pays you, and then claims the money back from the Coal LSL fund.

Which industries have a scheme in each state

This table shows the portable schemes in our rules data. A dash means that our data shows no portable scheme for that industry in that state or territory. In that case, the state or territory Act usually covers the workers.

How portable schemes are different from the state Acts

The qualifying periods are different. The state Acts need 10 years in NSW, Queensland, WA, SA, Tasmania and the NT. They need 7 years in Victoria and the ACT. The ACT community sector scheme needs 5 years. Victorian construction and the PLSA schemes need 7 years. Black coal needs 8 years, and most construction schemes need 10 years.

Schemes often count service in days or credits. Queensland construction needs 2,200 service credits, with a maximum of 220 each year. SA construction needs 2,600 service days, with a maximum of 260 each financial year.

Schemes have different rules for breaks. Several schemes keep your service through a gap of up to 4 years. Victorian construction and NSW community services are two of these schemes. Other schemes cancel or suspend your registration after more than 4 years without covered work.

The pay rate may not be your current wage. NSW construction pays the award rate for your last 55 days of recorded service. Queensland construction has a maximum rate of $2,548 a week from 1 July 2026. The NT construction scheme pays a flat $1,664.00 gross a week from 1 July 2026.

Early access often depends on whether you left the industry, not on why your job ended. Under most state Acts, a pro rata payment depends on the reason that your employment ended. Instead, most schemes ask if you permanently left the industry. For example, this is after 5 years in NSW construction or 1,540 days in Queensland construction.

No super guarantee is payable on scheme payments. The ATO says that long service leave from a portable scheme administrator is not ordinary time earnings or qualifying earnings. The Victorian PLSA and TasBuild both confirm that they pay no super on their payments.

Can you have a scheme entitlement and an employer entitlement?

Sometimes, yes. In Queensland, the Industrial Relations Act 2016 applies if you have 10 or more years with the same employer. Under that Act, that employer still owes you long service leave. In NSW community services, some workers have an entitlement under the Long Service Leave Act 1955 or an enterprise agreement. These workers take that leave from their employer.

In the Victorian contract cleaning and security schemes, if you have an entitlement under both, you must choose one. In the Victorian community services scheme, some workers already have an entitlement to traditional leave from their employer. These workers cannot claim the portable benefit. In NSW contract cleaning, service before 1 July 2011 stays the liability of your employer.

Service in other states

Some construction schemes recognise each other. NSW construction lets you combine interstate service. You then lodge your claim in the state where the scheme recorded your most recent service. Victorian construction combines service in interstate partner schemes. For its test of whether you left the industry, Queensland construction counts years on a corresponding interstate register.