Charges

Employers are required to report service for workers covered by the Scheme and pay long service leave charges to the Fund. The long service leave charge for employers is 2.7% of the total gross wages reported for your eligible workers.

The purpose of long service leave charges to employers is to ensure that the Scheme is sufficiently funded for its members, allowing them to claim their long service leave entitlement and take a well-earned break when they need it.

The contribution rate upon which long service leave charges are based is 2.7% of the total gross wages for all eligible workers reported by the employer. This keeps the long service leave charges equitable between all employers, no matter how large or small. Long service leave charges are an on-cost to employers; they are not itemised per member and are not to be deducted from any worker’s wages.

Long service leave charges typically relate to the service reported for workers by employers on their quarterly Workers Days and Wages returns. However, where the service relates to previously unreported or misreported service, there are additional statutory interest fees to be paid to the long service leave Fund.

You can pay your invoice via Credit Card (Visa or MasterCard only) or by BPay.

Select the Workers Days and Wages return period which you would like to pay for
Enter your credit card details to pay the invoice, or
Retrieve the invoice’s BPay reference code to use for online banking.

Please note that the BPay reference code is unique to each invoice. Ensure you use the correct reference code for the invoice you are trying to pay. Using an old or incorrect reference could result in your payment not being processed.

Some employers prefer their outgoings to be monthly rather than quarterly. LeavePlus provides employers with the facility to pay off a portion of their quarterly invoice in advance with optional prepayments.

The prepayment amount can be entirely of your choosing. There is no set amount, though most employers who do prepayments opt to estimate what around one third of their overall invoice will be for each prepayment e.g.

Jan Prepayment	Feb Prepayment	Invoice Total (Jan-Mar)	Balance Owing (Less Prepayments)
$1,400.00	$1,500.00	$4,575.25	$1,675.25

Once you receive your quarterly invoice, you can just pay off the balance owing (full contribution amount minus any prepayments).

To begin making prepayments, simply select the Receive Prepayments tick-box on the employer details page once you have logged in to the LeavePlus member portal. You will receive an email when each monthly prepayment voucher is available to pay online. Prepayment vouchers can be paid via credit card or BPay.

Please note prepayments are available for the first two months of each quarter, however we do not issue a prepayment voucher for the month of November – this is because we issue our Oct-Dec Workers Days and Wages returns earlier than usual due to the industry shutdown over the Christmas holidays.

It is sometimes the case that an employer has not recorded service for one of their workers for previous periods. In order to comply with their obligations under the law, the employer must supply information to LeavePlus. Employers must provide the amount of days worked and total gross wages for each financial year in which that worker was under their employ performing covered work.

For apprentices, you still need to complete the form and advise of the days worked in each year where service may be missing, but you do not need to provide any details regarding wages – LeavePlus covers the liability of apprentices up to the first 1,040 days (4 years) of any covered apprenticeship, meaning there are no charges on the part of the employer for apprenticeship service.

Backdated adjustment charges may contain statutory interest charges due to non-compliance with your employer obligations. These charges are payable to LeavePlus in accordance with the Rules of the Scheme as Trustee of the Long Service Leave Act.

Read more about how to backdate service for your workers at our employer missing service page.

If you are not able to pay your invoice by the due date and would like to discuss your payment options, please contact our Arrears Team on 03 9117 0866. For more information about your obligations, please see our Employer Obligations page.

Please note, all payment plans are subject to additional Statutory Interest charges in accordance with Section 5 of the Construction Industry Long Service Leave Act 1997.

Long service leave charges are based on a percentage ‘contribution rate’ rather than a set dollar amount to keep the charges uniform and fair between the larger and the smaller employers. This means that each employer pays their fair share proportionally to fund the Scheme.

The rate is agreed in advance by our Board of Directors and reviewed yearly. The current rate of 2.7% has been in place since 1 July 2009. The contribution rate is agreed upon and implemented to match market conditions so that LeavePlus can provide the best service to its members in administering the long service leave Scheme.

The contribution rate does not apply to reported service for apprentices, as LeavePlus covers the liability for apprentices for up to four years of any covered apprenticeship.

Where an employer may have paid the full liability to a worker when claiming long service leave directly from their employer (typically when the worker has been with the same employer for more than 7 years), then there may be a liability which is to be reimbursed to the employer by LeavePlus, dependent on the service accrued by the worker in question.

Employers can submit an Employer Reimbursement claim in the LeavePlus member portal. Log in to the portal and select My Claims from the main menu. Choose the worker from the list who the reimbursement claim relates to, then enter all the required information. The details you submit in your completed form enable LeavePlus to work out how much of the long service leave liability is to be reimbursed back to the employer.