Long Service Leave Calculator QLD

Purpose and Basics of Long Service Leave

Long service leave is an additional period of paid leave designed to reward employees for their long and loyal service with a single employer. The scheme originated in Australia in the 19th century and has remained a core pillar of the national employment landscape.

In Queensland, workers are protected under the Industrial Relations Act 2016. The general statutory entitlement is 8.6667 weeks of paid leave after 10 years of continuous service with the same employer.

Unlike annual leave or sick leave, which accrue progressively and can be taken at any point in the year, long service leave has strict rules regarding when you become legally eligible to take the leave or receive a payout upon termination.

The Rule of Continuous Service

To qualify, your service must be "continuous". Continuity is not broken by standard interruptions like:

• Paid annual leave, sick/personal leave, or public holidays.
• Periods of approved worker's compensation (WorkCover QLD claims).
• Unpaid leave that is approved by your employer (such as unpaid study or parental leave). However, the duration of unpaid leave does not count toward your total service accumulation.

For casual employees, continuous service is maintained as long as the gap between shifts does not exceed 3 months. If a casual worker goes longer than 3 months without performing work for that employer, their continuous service is legally broken, and their accrual count resets to zero.

Employment Contract Types

Queensland's long service leave legislation applies broadly across all standard employment structures:

• Full-Time Employees: Entitled to LSL based on their ordinary rate of pay at the time of taking the leave.
• Part-Time Employees: Entitled to LSL based on their average weekly hours. If hours have fluctuated, the calculation will look at their hours averaged over their entire period of service or a specific historical period.
• Casual Employees: Eligible under the same 10-year rule. Their entitlement is calculated based on their total ordinary hours worked throughout their service history.

If your employment contract has transitioned (for example, starting as a casual, moving to part-time, and finally full-time), your continuous service is unbroken, and your total ordinary hours across all periods are aggregated to calculate your LSL.

Portable Long Service Schemes

Certain high-mobility industries have specialized arrangements called "portable long service leave" managed through QLeave. Under these schemes, workers can accumulate LSL based on service to the industry as a whole rather than a single employer:

• Building and Construction Industry: Serves workers in carpentry, bricklaying, electrical, plumbing, and civil construction.
• Contract Cleaning Industry: Serves cleaning staff working across commercial or residential spaces.
• Community Services: Serves workers in social work, childcare, disability support, and community care.

If you operate in these industries, your service history is registered and tracked directly with QLeave.

Standard Accrual (Full-Time & Constant Hours)

For employees working a constant weekly schedule, leave is calculated based on completed weeks of leave:

Accrued Weeks = (Total Service Days / 365.25) × 0.86667

For example, after exactly 10 years of service, an employee has accrued: 10 × 0.86667 = 8.6667 weeks of leave.

If their weekly wage is $1,500, their active leave value and payout rate is: 8.6667 weeks × $1,500 = $13,000.

Variable Hours (Casual & Part-Time Formula)

For employees whose hours vary over time, Queensland uses a formula based on total ordinary hours worked:

LSL Hours = Total Ordinary Hours Worked ÷ 52 × 8.6667 ÷ 10

This simplifies mathematically to:LSL Hours = Total Ordinary Hours Worked × 0.01667.

This means a casual employee earns approximately 1 hour of long service leave for every 60 ordinary hours worked. When LSL is taken, it is paid out at the employee's current ordinary hourly rate (including casual loading).

Resignation Under 10 Years (The 7-Year Pro-Rata Rule)

If you leave your employer between 7 and 10 years of service, you do not automatically receive an LSL payout. Under Queensland law, pro-rata payouts are conditional:

• Death: your service ends because you die, and the payment goes to your estate.
• Illness, injury or incapacity: you end your own employment because of your illness, which includes injury, incapacity or another medical condition.
• Domestic or other pressing necessity: you resign because of a pressing family or personal situation, such as moving interstate to care for a sick spouse.
• Employer dismissal because of your illness: the employer ends the employment on illness grounds.
• Employer dismissal for a reason other than your conduct, capacity or performance: this is the category redundancy falls into.
• Unfair dismissal: the employer unfairly dismisses you.

The test is the primary reason the service ended. Reaching retirement age is not itself one of the statutory grounds between 7 and 10 years, and resigning for career progression or to work for a competitor does not qualify either.

Payout Rules After 10 Years

Once you hit the 10-year continuous service milestone, your long service leave is considered a "vested" entitlement.

This means that if you leave your employer for any reason—including resigning to take a new job, being made redundant, or even being dismissed for misconduct—your employer is legally obligated to pay out all unused, accrued long service leave in your final pay.

This payout is calculated based on your ordinary rate of pay at the date of your termination.