Paying long service leave in the community services industry

Learn about when you need to pay long service benefits directly to your workers and claiming reimbursement for a long service leave payment.

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Paying worker long service entitlements

The community services industry portable long service leave scheme (the scheme) does not replace your obligation to pay long service leave to your workers under the Long Service Leave Act 1955 (the 1955 Act).

The portable scheme operates alongside the 1955 Act. You must maintain compliance with the 1955 Act and the Community Services Sector (Portable Long Service Leave) Act 2024 (the Act).

If you've been employing workers before the start of the scheme, some workers may already be entitled to claim their long service benefit under the 1955 Act.

The portable long service leave scheme does not change any long service leave entitlements a worker has already accrued under the 1955 Act.

Workers can choose to claim their long service leave:

from their organisation under the 1955 Act, or
from Long Service Corporation (LSC) under the portable scheme.

Workers cannot claim the same entitlement from both the scheme and the 1955 Act.

For more information about the 1955 Act, contact NSW Industrial Relations:

by phone on 13 16 28, or
visit the NSW Industrial Relations website.

Contact LSC before making a long service leave payment

Let LSC know before you pay long service leave under the 1955 Act to a worker listed in your service returns.

This is to stop workers from receiving a long service payment from the portable scheme (for the same period) should they mistakenly apply to LSC at the same time.

We will tell you when your worker receives a long service payment from the portable scheme. You should note this on their records to make sure that the worker does not get a double payment for any period of work.

Failure by employers to meet the requirements, resulting in a double payment to workers, may:

result in debt recovery action against workers
prevent any reimbursement payment to an employer where a worker claims a benefit from both you and LSC.

To notify LSC of any proposed long service payments, contact us on 13 14 41.

Have you already paid a claim?

If you are an employer who has paid out on claims since 1 July 2025, you need to notify LSC as soon as possible. Use the Employer Portal to upload your service returns and contact us.

Claim reimbursement for a long service payment

If you pay long service leave to any of your workers under the 1955 Act, you can claim reimbursement for some, or all, of the portable long service leave payment the worker accrued from 1 July 2025. This is known as an Employer Claim.

To be eligible to claim, you must:

both be registered with the scheme
be up to date with your service returns and levy contributions
let us know about the long service leave payment before you pay it.

Reimbursements are calculated based on the following formula:

Number of weeks accrued from 1 July 2025 x weekly pay rate used for the 1955 Act payment.

Example

Joe takes leave in July 2027 under the 1955 Act, paid by the employer. Joe’s employer calculates his leave entitlement to be 8.6667 weeks of leave for his 10-year service. Joe’s employer has been making contributions to the fund since 1 July 2025, which equates to 1.7328 weeks of this entitlement.

Joe’s employer calculates Joe’s ordinary weekly pay rate under the provisions of the 1955 Act, which in this case is $832.50 per week.

The employer pays Joe the full leave entitlement of 8.6667 weeks x $832.50, totalling $7,215.03.

The employer then seeks 1.7328 x $832.50 from LSC, who will reimburse the employer $1,442.56.

Note: This example is for demonstrative purposes only. This scenario is not representative of any individual and does not consider your own circumstances.

See more scheme coverage examples for workers.

Foundation worker bonus

There is no cost to employers for their eligible workers who receive the foundation worker bonus from LSC.

The bonus is managed and credited by us. It does not create additional administrative costs for you and does not affect levy calculations or reporting obligations.

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