Long Service Leave in Victoria: The 7-Year Rule and No Early Pro-Rata

The Long Service Leave Act 2018 (Vic) gives most Victorian employees paid long service leave from 7 years of continuous service, accruing continuously at 1/60th of total service, but unlike every other Australian jurisdiction, Victoria pays nothing at all before 7 years, on any ground.

Who Qualifies for Long Service Leave in Victoria

The Long Service Leave Act 2018 (Vic) is the default long service leave law for most Victorian employees, covering full-time, part-time, casual and seasonal workers unless they are covered by a pre-existing agreement or industrial instrument that provides an equivalent or better entitlement. Under section 6, an employee becomes entitled to take paid long service leave once they complete 7 years of continuous employment with the one employer, a shorter qualifying period than the 10 years used in most other Australian jurisdictions. Related bodies corporate and, in some circumstances, businesses that have been transferred, can count service across those entities as continuous, though the detail depends on the specific corporate structure.

How Much Long Service Leave You Get in Victoria

Victoria does not use a fixed number of weeks at the 7-year mark. Instead, section 6 sets the entitlement at 1/60th of the employee's total period of continuous employment. At exactly 7 years, that produces about 6.067 weeks of paid leave. Because the rate is continuous rather than stepped, there is no separate "further accrual" formula that kicks in at 12 years or 15 years: the same 1/60th rate simply keeps running for as long as the employee stays with the employer, so an employee at 14 years holds about 12.133 weeks and an employee at 20 years holds about 17.333 weeks.

No Pro-Rata Before 7 Years in Victoria

This is the point where Victoria departs from every other Australian state and territory. Every other jurisdiction lets a worker who leaves before the standard qualifying period collect a pro-rata payment in at least some circumstances, typically illness, redundancy or another pressing personal reason. Victoria does not. Under the Long Service Leave Act 2018, nothing is payable before 7 years of continuous service, regardless of why the employment ends, including illness, incapacity, redundancy or any other pressing necessity. An employee who leaves at 6 years and 11 months in Victoria, for any reason short of reaching 7 years, has no long service leave entitlement to be paid out. This is a deliberate feature of the Victorian Act, confirmed in the Victorian Government's own guidance, not an omission, and it is the sharpest single contrast between Victoria and its neighbours.

What Happens at Termination After 7 Years

Once an employee has reached 7 years, the position changes completely. Section 9 treats any long service leave the employee has accrued as taken on their last day of employment and requires the employer to pay it out, whatever the reason for the termination, including resignation, dismissal or redundancy. A separate provision, section 10, covers an employee who dies while still under 7 years of service, allowing a payment to the estate in that specific circumstance even though the general 7-year rule would otherwise deny it.

What Counts as Continuous Service in Victoria

Continuous employment under the Victorian Act generally means unbroken service with the same employer, though certain periods away from work, including some forms of paid and unpaid leave, do not break continuity even though they may affect how leave is calculated. Casual and seasonal employees can accrue long service leave in Victoria provided their engagement is otherwise regular and continuous, and transfers of business between related or successive employers can preserve continuity in defined circumstances. Because the rules interact with the specific facts of an employment history, an employee unsure whether a break affected their service date should check with Workforce Inspectorate Victoria.

How Long Service Leave Pay Is Calculated in Victoria

Victoria uses the highest of three different averages to set the rate of pay for long service leave: the employee's ordinary pay over the preceding 52 weeks, their average ordinary pay over the preceding 260 weeks, 5 years, or their average ordinary pay over their whole period of employment. Using the highest of the three protects an employee whose current hours or pay are lower than their long-term average, which matters for workers who have moved to part-time hours or taken on less overtime closer to the date they take or are paid out their leave.

Portable Long Service Leave and How Victoria Compares

Outside the general Act, Victoria runs a separate portable long service benefits scheme under the Long Service Benefits Portability Act 2018, covering contract cleaning, security and community services workers who move between employers within the same industry. Victoria's 7-year qualifying period matches the ACT rather than the 10-year period used in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory; see Australian Capital Territory long service leave for that comparison. But Victoria's complete absence of early pro-rata is unique nationally: even the ACT pays a limited pro-rata from 5 years, and so does New South Wales; see New South Wales long service leave. For the state with the broadest early pro-rata coverage, see Western Australia long service leave. General questions about long service leave in Victoria go to Workforce Inspectorate Victoria, renamed from Wage Inspectorate Victoria in December 2025, and related entitlements are covered on the redundancy pay in Australia page, the long service leave calculator, and the Australia employment law hub.

This article provides general information about long service leave in Victoria under the Long Service Leave Act 2018 (Vic), current as at 19 July 2026. It is not legal advice. Long service leave entitlements depend on individual circumstances, including exact dates of service, breaks in employment and any applicable agreement or employment contract. For advice about a specific entitlement, contact Workforce Inspectorate Victoria or a legal practitioner admitted in Victoria.