Workers

The easiest way to keep a track of your record of service in real-time is by signing up for online access. Your file should be updated when your employer submits their quarterly report and you can see when this has been updated by logging in and checking the Entitlements screen. You will also be able to download copies of your past Statements of Service for each financial year in which you have accrued service with LeavePlus.

LeavePlus produces an annual Statement of Service for the preceding financial year in early October. Your employers for that year are listed on the statement.

If you find that any of your employers from the preceding financial year are not listed on your Statement of Service, you can submit a Missing Service query for LeavePlus to investigate this.

LeavePlus Annual Statement of Service

Your annual Statement of Service is sent generated each year in early October. It covers the preceding financial year, and shows:

• Which employers recorded service for you for that financial year (if applicable)
• Your total service for that financial year
• Your total long service leave entitlement
• Long service leave which is Employer Liability – if applicable

The “Two Thirds” rule

In any given Workers’ Days and Wages period where an individual apprentice or worker performs covered work for at least two thirds of their employment, the employer must record 100% of that individual’s employment the Workers’ Days & Wages form for that period.

Therefore, where a Worker is considered fully covered according to the Two Thirds Rule, the employer must base contributions to LeavePlus on 100% of the worker’s gross ordinary wages (not including overtime) for the total number of days worked.

A Worker has to be with the same employer for the entire service period for the Two Thirds Rule to apply.

Workers whose service may be subject to the two thirds rule include those who are only covered when performing work on commercial sites such as Landscape Gardening Services:

In the below example, an employee may work for the employer for the full quarterly reporting period (65 days), but perform a mix of covered (commercial – 43 days) and non-covered (domestic – 22 days) work.

Where the proportion of covered work to non-covered work is more than two thirds (in this case 66%), 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-admin or surveying responsibilities, the two thirds will also apply:

In this example, an employee may work for the employer for the full quarterly reporting period (65 days) but perform a mix of covered (on-site-construction – 47 days) and non-covered (office-admin/surveying – 18 days) work.

Where the proportion of covered work to 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 to non-covered work does not exceed two-thirds, then the service should be reported only as the days performing covered work and their equivalent total gross wages.

The interstate reciprocal agreement means that if you work interstate, your time in the industry can still be counted towards long service leave. However, you must notify and register with the relevant long service leave scheme – contact details are located here.

It is also important that you notify LeavePlus so that our records note that you have long service leave credits elsewhere. Until you actually apply for long service leave, your record of service in the industry is kept separately in each State/Territory scheme. Please also notify interstate schemes and LeavePlus of any change of address.

Can I roll my interstate service together?

No. The record for any service accrued in a certain state can only be recorded with the state authority in which the work was performed i.e. LeavePlus can only keep record of your work done in Victoria – you cannot transfer any interstate record onto your record with us.

However, you can use all of your interstate service together, but only when you make a claim for Long Service Leave. Simply complete the interstate section of the claim form for your current host state, and any interstate entitlements can be paid out to you as part of your claim.

You can have breaks from recorded service for a maximum of up to four years. As long as your service record has gaps of no more than four years, you can build up on top of your previously accrued service credits as one continuous service record.

However, if you have a gap of more than four years, your previous service record will be made inactive and you will not be able to build up on top of what you already had, as the gap will be considered too large to be classed as continuous. Any eligible entitlements accrued from previous service blocks will still be claimable.

If you were a non-contributing subcontractor during a Break In Service period, you can provide LeavePlus with evidence that you were still in the industry at that time by sending us a copy of the taxable income page of your tax return for that year (showing your ABN, work type, and total financial income for that financial year). As long as this evidence shows you were contracting in Victoria during this time, with gaps of no more than four years between this evidence and your recorded service credits, then we can apply an Approved Break In Service to your account, whereby your service will be classed as one continuous block (provided the evidence is not prior to 1 Dec 1997).

Service as a subcontractor cannot be backdated – as contributions are optional for subcontractors, if you did not contribute at the time, you will have lost out on any possible service credits for that time.

Workers are eligible to start receiving service credits from the starting date of their first employer or after the date coverage commenced for your trade within the construction industry. There are two different calculations, dependent on when your service was performed:

Any service accrued prior to 1 July 2002 is based on an accrual of 0.866 weeks of LSL per full year of accrued service (equivalent to 13 weeks after 15 years’ service).

Service accrued after 1 July 2002 is based on an accrual of 1.3 weeks of LSL per full year of accrued service (equivalent to 13 weeks after 10 years’ service).