Reporting service

Note: In the online portal, the quarterly return is referred to as ‘WDW’, which stands for ‘Worker Days and Wages’.

• Log in to LeavePlus online portal.
• Input the days and wages information for your existing Workers. Add any new Workers you need and input their days and wages details. For more information on allowances and how to correctly report days and wages, refer to the ‘What to include in the return’ below or the Reporting Service Checklist and Offshore Reporting Service Checklist.
• Review the information you have entered and any changes you have made, then submit your return.
• Your invoice will be emailed to the email address you’ve stored with us. You can change your email address if you need to. There’s an option to print or save a copy of your submission for your records too.
• You’ll be able to see the status of your return in real-time by accessing the ‘My WDWs’ menu in the online portal. There are various stages and statuses to note. The video above explains the different stages.

For all online submissions that contain wage details, an invoice will be emailed to you. You will see the return status ‘Invoiced / Payment not yet received’.

The invoice attachment in your email will contain details of how you can make payment via BPay. Make sure you use the unique BPay reference for the specific period you’re aiming to pay for. The BPay reference number will change for each new invoice.

If you happen to lose the BPay reference, you can find it in the ‘My WDWs’ menu. You’ll notice the ‘Pay now’ button which you can click on to pay your invoice via credit card, or use the invoice ID as your BPay reference for that payment.

For more details on payment options, visit the Employer Charges page.

The deadline for submission of each quarter’s return is 14 days after the end of that quarter. LeavePlus will take compliance action for late return submissions and late payments. These measures are explained on the Employer Obligations page.

The table below outlines the specifics of each quarter, including submission dates.

Reporting days

The days to be reported on your return include days that are classed as part of a normal working contract: standard working weekdays as per your Worker’s contract, annual leave, paid sick leave, paid public holidays, RDOs and school days for Apprentices. For any time on WorkCover or unpaid sick leave, a separate column is provided for you to record these days on the return form.

Reporting ordinary pay

For all covered Workers, including any Worker Directors, you must include their gross ordinary pay for the return period. The exception is VRQA certified Apprentices where no wage details are required.

For full-time and part-time Workers, do not include payments for work outside or in excess of the hours of work set by their contract. For casual Workers you must report all wages paid in the first 38 hours worked in any week starting from Monday. Whether full-time, part-time or casual, all payments for work inside the relevant hours are reported. This includes shift loadings and all allowances except those paid for travel, fares, meals, living away from home (LAHA) or leave loading.

The table below gives you a breakdown of what to include/exclude when reporting wages.

Refer to the Reporting Service Checklist and Offshore Reporting Service Checklist for more information about what to include in your return.

In the construction industry, there can be many different types of Workers who get paid in very different ways. Refer below for information on ‘Worker Directors’ and ‘Casual Workers on non-set hours’ that includes videos that explain how to report days and wages for each of these Worker types.

The WorkCover / Unpaid Sick Leave column exists for the benefit of any Workers who aren’t able to accrue service as normal due to an extended medical absence, where they are still employed by your business but are not being paid by you.

This could be due to having used up their allocation of paid sick leave or because they are being paid through WorkCover/Workers Compensation Insurance/TAC while unable to work.

Employers can report up to 104 weeks of WorkCover / Unpaid Sick Leave per injury or medical absence for each worker.* Wages details are not required for any days of WorkCover / Unpaid Sick Leave.

Exclusions

Do not use this column to report:

• Regular paid sick leave
• Leave without pay (LWOP)
• Long service leave.

Regular paid sick leave is a statutory requirement of the Worker’s employment with your business. Therefore, regular sick days and their respective wages are to be included in the normal working days and wages columns.

Leave Without Pay (LWOP) is simply a day not worked and a day for which no wages are paid. No details are to be recorded for these days in any part of the Workers Days & Wages form.

Long service leave is paid and credited by LeavePlus, so we’ll already know about that.

*LeavePlus may at time request medical certificates and WorkCover documentation as proof of the dates each injury/illness occurred and any continuing incapacity to work.

For any Worker who has performed covered work more than 5 days within any month, you must record those days worked and their gross Ordinary Pay for the period. Include all working days, days taken as annual leave and paid sick leave, RDOs and public holidays.

Effectively, for a full-time Worker, the only time their service should be reported as less than the maximum days available for the period is if they have taken any time as unpaid leave or if some of the work that they perform during that period is not covered work.

For any periods of unpaid sick leave or leave taken where WorkCover payments are made, there is a separate column for reporting this (no wage details are required for any service pertaining to WorkCover days). LeavePlus can credit WorkCover days towards a Long Service Leave Benefit entitlement up to a maximum of 104 weeks per injury or unpaid sick leave absence.

Workers who are also directors of a company and are paid by the company for that work, fall into one of two categories depending on how they are paid: those who take a consistent and provable PAYG wage, and those who do not (often taking drawings or inconsistent amounts from the company).

Consistent PAYG wages

If a Worker Director takes a consistent wage provable through pay slips showing PAYG and tax withheld at the time of payment, then you can report wages for the period consistent with the days worked.

Inconsistent wages / drawings

If the Worker Director does not take a consistent wage and you cannot provide proof of your PAYG wage, you are required to report your service to LeavePlus based on the ‘Minimum Contribution Rate’ for your occupation. You can find these details below.

Any subsequent Long Service Leave Benefit claim for the Worker Director will then be paid out according to this same rate.

Trust distributions are not wages

If the Employer is the trustee of a discretionary trust (for instance, most family trusts are ‘discretionary’ trusts), distributions from the trust are not considered wages and are not included on returns. In fact, if a director of a trustee company performs covered work but only receives trust distributions without any wages or other fees paid, LeavePlus will not classify that director as a Worker and they are not to be included on returns. Such a director is considered a Working Subcontractor by LeavePlus. Visit the Self-Employed Entitlement page for more information about Working Subcontractors under the Scheme.

You should seek professional advice if you are unsure about whether you qualify as a Worker Director and must be included on returns.

Employers are required to report Service details quarterly for all Workers who perform more than 5 days of covered work within a month. This includes full-time-permanent, part-time-permanent and Workers on non-set hours (casual workers).

For Workers on non-set hours there is a specific method of reporting days and wages.

Reporting ordinary pay

For a Worker whose terms of employment do not fix their weekly number of hours, the Employer pays Long Service Leave Charges for the first 38 hours worked by that Worker. The amount payable is calculated from the actual remuneration paid to the worker for those 38 hours at the applicable rate/s paid, i.e. ordinary time, time-and-a-half and double-time rates, inclusive of allowances and any loading paid.

Reporting days

• For a Worker whose terms of employment do not fix the weekly number of hours and do not fix the hours of work (such as casual Workers), reporting of days is also based on the first 38 hours worked by the Worker in any week (commencing from Monday and ending on Sunday).
• Days are calculated by counting hours as they fall each week up to a maximum of 38 hours and dividing by 7.6 (the national standard working day).
• If a worker works less than 38 hours in the week, the Employer calculates days by dividing the total hours worked by 7.6 hours to give the total days for that week.
• If a Worker works more than 7.6 hours in a single day, all those hours count provided they fall within the first 38 hours of work performed in any week.
• The 38 hours that are counted may be spread across more than 5 calendar days. If it takes six or seven days to reach 38 hours for the week, those hours still count. Provided you are only using the first 38 hours worked in your calculation of days then hours worked on a Saturday or Sunday can count too.

Example:

Casual employee Jojo works 8 hours on Monday, 12 hours on Wednesday, 10 hours on Saturday and 10 hours on Sunday.
The Employer must report the first 38 hours worked by Jojo i.e. the 8 hours worked on Monday, the 12 hours on Wednesday, the 10 hours on Saturday but only 8 hours for the time worked on Sunday.

If using the casual timecard, the calculator will cap the hours used for the calculation at 38 or, if less, round upwards to the nearest whole day in each month.

If not using the casual timecard, the Employer must tally the total hours worked each week (up to a maximum of 38) over the entire quarterly period and then divide those total hours by 7.6 to get the total number of days to be reported in that 3-month period. It is recommended that the Employer keeps track of the total hours worked by tallying the total hours worked each week for each month in the quarter and round upwards to the nearest whole day in each month. An Employer must only report service for a Worker when they have worked more than 5 days in a calendar month.

Example: Casual employee Jojo works 128 hours in October, 100 hours in November and 152 hours in December.

The Employer would calculate the service to be reported as 128 + 100 + 152 = Total hours 380.
380 / 7.6 = 50 days of service to be reported for Jojo in the October-December quarter.

Download the Casual Timecard for the desired quarter below to keep a better track of the work performed by any of your workers who are on non-set hours.

Victorian Registrations and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) certified Apprentices need only record the amount of days worked. No wage details are required as LeavePlus covers the Service credits for an Apprentice for the first 4 years (1,040 days maximum) of covered apprenticeships.

Note that not all training contracts and qualifications are deemed apprenticeships by VRQA. Some qualifications are classified by the VRQA as traineeships. Charges are payable to LeavePlus for work performed under a traineeship just as they are for other Workers.

You can check whether a particular qualification is an apprenticeship or a traineeship on the VRQA website.

Changing an Apprentice to a Worker online

If an Apprentice has changed to a Worker, or a Worker to an Apprentice within the quarter, select the date when they changed over and just report the days they worked. You will only be asked to report wages details for them in the next return period after you’ve changed them to a Worker (instructions in video above).

Proof of apprenticeship

LeavePlus may at any time require proof that a Worker is employed under a training contract that is certified by the VRQA as an apprentice training contract. The easiest way to do this is to produce records from the VRQA certifying this. LeavePlus will not accept TAFE enrolment records as evidence of an apprenticeship.

If it cannot be established that a certified apprentice training contract exists, then the Worker is not an Apprentice under the Rules of the Scheme and wages must be reported on returns and Long Service Leave Charges become payable just as for any other worker. If the reported wage falls below our minimum wage rate for their relevant occupation, LeavePlus may, pursuant to the Rules of the Scheme, levy Long Service Leave Charges based on the applicable minimum wage rate.

In any given return period where an individual Worker (including an Apprentice) performs covered work for at least two-thirds of their employment, the Employer must include all other days worked and wages paid for those days on the return. Under the Rules of the Scheme, in this situation, all the work is deemed as covered work and the Employer must round up their reporting accordingly to record 100% of that individual’s employment in the period.

In summary, where the Two-thirds Rule applies, Employers must round up the days and wages to include 100% of the worker’s gross Ordinary Pay (calculated in the usual way) for the total number of days worked (again, calculated in the usual way to include paid leave etc).

The table below breaks down what to include/exclude when reporting wages.

Workers whose Service may be subject to the Two-thirds Rule are typically those performing partially covered work.

An example might be a landscape gardener. Unlike most covered occupations, this occupation is not covered for domestic work. A landscape gardening Worker may work for the Employer for the full return period (65 days), but perform a mix of covered (commercial = 44 days) and non-covered (domestic = 21 days) work.

Where the proportion of covered work vs non-covered work is more than two-thirds (in this case 67%), the days and wages must be rounded up to reflect the full employment period.

Equally, where a Worker has split duties between on-site-construction roles and office administration or surveying responsibilities, the Two-thirds Rule will also apply.

In this example, a Worker may work for the Employer for the full return period (65 days) but perform a mix of covered (on-site construction = 47 days) and non-covered (office administration/surveying = 18 days) work.

Where the proportion of covered work vs non-covered work is more than two-thirds (in this case 72%), the days and wages must be rounded up to reflect the full employment period.

For all instances where the proportion of covered-work vs non-covered-work does not exceed two-thirds, then the service should be reported pro rata only for the days performing covered work and their equivalent total gross wages.

Any new Workers can be added onto the return using the ‘Add New Worker’ button. You will be required to provide the following details:

• Personal details: LeavePlus registration number (if known), full name, date of birth, mobile phone number, email address
• Contact address: Full home address, full postal address (if different from home address such as PO boxes etc.)
• Email address: All worker statements are online only, so a contact email address is mandatory for new workers to ensure they can easily sign up for online access. The email address must belong to the worker. Generic employer addresses (e.g. accounts@, payroll@, enquiries@ etc) will not be accepted.
• Service details: Worker type (Worker, Apprentice, Working Director), industry type (e.g. building, electrical, metal), trade type (e.g. carpenter, electrical worker, welder etc.), start date, days worked and wages for the reporting period only.

If a Worker has commenced with you before the start of the current reporting period (quarter), you must not record any days or wage details relating to work performed prior to the reporting period. Those days and wages details will need to be credited to the previous invoicing period during which the workdays were actually performed.

LeavePlus will need to process a retrospective adjustment to backdate any service relating to work performed prior to the start of this period. Use the ‘Contact us’ function in the LeavePlus online portal to get in touch with our team about backdating service for your Workers.

Workers whose employment has been terminated during the current reporting period must be removed from your active Workers list. You can find instructions on how to do this in the video above. Simply enter the date they ceased with you in the ‘Employment End Date’ column and they will cease to appear on future online submissions.

Days and wages for covered work performed during the reporting period must still be recorded in your online submission.

Where any annual leave was paid out upon termination, both the monetary amount and the number of days pertaining to the amount must be reported, even if this exceeds the maximum days for the quarter (for instance, because of paid out annual leave or RDOs that accrued but were not taken).

Terminated & reemployed in the same return period

If a Worker’s employment is terminated and then they are re-employed within the return period, you do not have to record this in the return as this is still classed as one continuous employment period.

However, if you paid out any annual leave days or unused RDOs to the Worker as part of any termination payments, you must still include those days and the wages pertaining to them on your online submission, regardless of them having commenced employment with you again.

If you engage individuals as independent subcontractors (Working Subcontractors in the Scheme Rules) you must not include them on returns. Working Subcontractors can elect to report service and pay Long Service Leave Charges for themselves through LeavePlus directly. They are not to be included on your existing Workers list unless you are taking them on as an actual employee.

At common law, an individual will be an employee, regardless of the label they are given, if they meet the relevant criteria. An individual is likely to be an employee where their hirer has control over how and when they work and the individual is integrated into the hirer’s business. Misclassification of Workers as Working Subcontractors is a common problem in the construction industry and can have serious repercussions for Employers. LeavePlus recommends Employers seek professional advice if they believe this is a risk for them.

For the purposes of completing your quarterly return submission, the table below outlines the minimum weekly and daily rate for each trade. Simply locate the applicable occupation in the table and use the daily rate multiplied by the amount of days worked in the quarter (normally this is around 65 days maximum per quarter). Where the amount actually paid to the Worker exceeds the rate in the table you should use the actual rate paid. Where the rate is below the minimum rate, you should use the minimum rate in the table.

The occupations listed below come under various awards: MA000020 covers Building and Construction General On-site Award 2010 and MA000036 covers Plumbing & Fire Sprinklers Award 2010. These are awards in place and active in 20234/2025 that apply to common covered occupations.

For the purposes of completing your quarterly return submission, the table below outlines both the weekly and daily rate for each occupation. Simply locate the applicable occupation in the table and use the daily rate multiplied by the amount of days worked in the quarter (normally this is around 65 days maximum per quarter). Where the amount actually paid to the Worker exceeds the rate in the table you should use the actual rate paid. Where the rate is below the minimum rate, you should use the minimum rate in the table.

The rates listed below are for common covered electrical industry occupations and come from the following award which is in place and active for 2024/2025: Electrical, Electronic and Communications Contracting Award 2010 – MA000025.

For the purposes of completing your quarterly return submission, the table below outlines both the weekly and daily rate for each occupation. Simply locate the applicable occupation in the table and use the daily rate multiplied by the amount of days worked in the quarter (normally this is around 65 days maximum per quarter). Where the amount actually paid to the Worker exceeds the rate in the table you should use the actual rate paid. Where the rate is below the minimum rate, you should use the minimum rate in the table.

The rates listed below are for common covered occupations and come from the following awards which are in place and active for 2024/2025: Building and Construction General On-site Award 2010 – MA000020 and Manufacturing & Associated Industries & Occupations Award 2010 – MA000010.