Managing employer returns and paying levies in the contract cleaning industry
Learn about your obligations for submitting returns and paying levies as an employer in the contract cleaning industry portable long service leave scheme.
Employer returns
You must provide Long Service Corporation (LSC) with information about your workers' service each quarter.
Employers must:
- Lodge a return through the employer portal every 3 months.
- Notify LSC when a worker starts or finishes working for them. This must be done on the first return after a worker starts or finishes employment.
- Pay a levy when you lodge your return.
What to include in your return
You need to provide the following information for each worker:
- telephone numbers and email addresses
- type of cleaning work performed
- total amount of ordinary wages paid for cleaning work during the return period
- start and finish dates of workers who started or finished employment in the return period.
Part-time or casual workers should be included in your return. Find out more about worker eligibility.
Find out more about worker start and end dates.
Gross ordinary wages
Gross ordinary wages are wages before tax and any other deductions that are paid to a worker for cleaning work.
Gross ordinary wages include:
- award or over award rate of pay
- weekend work and public holiday penalty rates on normal rostered shifts forming ordinary hours of duty
- toilet/refuse allowance
- broken shift allowance
- RDOs
- long service and annual leave (when taken as leave)
- paid maternity/paternity leave/parental leave (when paid directly by the employer)
- bereavement leave
- personal/carer’s leave
- casual loading
- sick leave
- public holidays
- workers compensation payments (where made directly by the employer)
- jury service
- first aid allowance.
Gross ordinary wages do not include:
- overtime
- travel allowance
- meal allowance
- leave loading
- superannuation
- lump sum payments for accrued annual leave
- sick leave or long service leave paid out on termination
- payments in lieu of notice
- Christmas bonuses and ex-gratia payments
- payments for materials and equipment
- one-off bonuses
- protective clothing allowance
- workers compensation payments (paid by an insurance company)
- redundancy payments.
This list is not exhaustive. Contact us for specific advice.
What to exclude from your return
Work on Commonwealth places
Employers must exclude any work on Commonwealth places from quarterly returns.
From 1 January 2023, employers were required to ensure they do not include any cleaning work performed on Commonwealth places in their service returns.
Read more about Commonwealth places.
How to complete an employer return
There are 2 ways an employer can lodge a return, both are through the Employer Portal.
Your return method has been set by LSC. If you would like to discuss or change your lodgement options please contact us.
You will need to manually enter each worker’s details onto an electronic worker application form provided on the return.
Do not forget to finalise your return once you have entered each worker's details.
This option allows you to:
- download a Microsoft Excel template from LSC
- copy and paste your workers' data from your payroll software
- save it as a CSV file and upload the template back to LSC.
You can also enter worker data manually onto the template.
See the CSV returns data guide.
Return periods and due dates
| Return period | Return and levy due |
|---|---|
| 1 January to 31 March | 14 April |
| 1 April to 30 June | 14 July |
| 1 July to 30 September | 14 October |
| 1 October to 31 December | 14 January |
Paying the levy
You can pay the levy by:
- BPAY, or
- cheque.
Your quarterly return contains your BPAY reference and biller code.
Levies are payable to LSC on the same day the return is due.
The levy must not be deducted from workers' wages. It is an extra payment employers must make.
How the levy is calculated
The levy is calculated at 1% of the gross ordinary wages of cleaning employees.
Before 1 July 2021, the rate was 1.7%. Outstanding levy payments for the period between 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2021 are subject to the 1.7% levy rate.
Overdue levy payments
Let us know if you are having challenges paying your levy on time. We encourage you to inform us in the first instance so we can support you and ensure workers receive their entitlements.
Interest may apply to overdue levy payments and will be added to the outstanding amount.