About Us

LeavePlus’ Regulatory Objectives: Helping workers; Fair outcomes

At LeavePlus, everything we do comes back to one simple goal: making sure construction workers in Victoria get paid for the long service leave they’ve earned.

Long service leave isn’t a perk. It’s a legal entitlement for workers across Australia, recognising their commitment and longevity in the construction industry. In a sector that demands so much physically, long service leave plays a critical role in supporting the health, safety, and wellbeing of its workforce. It also strengthens the industry by encouraging experienced workers to stay.

As the regulatory body, LeavePlus’ role is to make sure workers get the benefits they’re entitled to, assist employers in meeting their obligations and take action if they don’t. When an employer does the wrong thing, it’s the worker who misses out – and that’s something we’re here to prevent.

Our regulatory mission

LeavePlus administers the Construction Industry Long Service Leave Act 1997 (Vic) (the Act) and regulates compliance with the Act. We engage with employers and the wider construction industry to ensure our regulatory action is fair and targeted.

LeavePlus adheres to high standards of professionalism and integrity in taking regulatory action.

Our regulatory vision

Our aim is to be a modern risk-based regulator. This means that we will:

• Focus on the biggest compliance risks first and try to stop serious problems before they happen.
• Commit to continuously getting better and ensuring our regulatory approach reflects what is happening across the construction industry.
• Help employers do the right thing in the first place, through engagement, awareness and education.
• Hold ourselves to a high standard of professionalism and be transparent about our operations, including how we enforce the law.

Our Regulatory Objectives anchor everything we do as a regulator, to help us achieve this vision.

What our regulatory objectives mean

Regulatory Objective: Construction workers in Victoria are entitled to portable long service leave. LeavePlus will make sure they get paid when they take their long service leave.

Protecting entitlements: LeavePlus plays an important role in protecting an essential entitlement for construction workers in Victoria: portable long service leave.

Regulatory Objective: LeavePlus supports Employers to comply. But if Employers refuse to meet their legal obligations, we will enforce the law.

Support to comply: LeavePlus is committed to helping employers meet their obligations. We provide education and guidance and are investing in new systems and processes to operate more efficiently – reducing the administrative burden of compliance over time. At the same time, if employers fail to meet their obligations, we will take legal action to support the integrity of the scheme and protect the interests of workers and the industry.

Regulatory Objective: Our enforcement is firm but proportionate.

Fair and firm enforcement: We will use our legal powers in a balanced way. We will handle similar breaches consistently and provide fair warning, considering the context of each case.

Regulatory Objective: LeavePlus promotes trust in the construction industry’s long service leave system by operating transparently and independently.

Independent and transparent regulation: We believe in being open and honest to build trust in our work. We publish information about how we use our legal powers on our website, as well as information about our operations in our Annual Report and Fund Report.

LeavePlus also adopts a proactive approach to release information about our operations, where appropriate. That means we will proactively publish information about any changes to operations or decisions that may impact employers and workers in the construction industry as well as broader industry stakeholders.