New South Wales Long Service Leave Calculator

How the Entitlement Is Worked Out

Section 4(2)(a)(i)(A) of the Long Service Leave Act 1955 (NSW) gives most private-sector employees who complete 10 years of continuous service with one employer 2 months of paid leave. A "month" is defined as 4 and one-third weeks for this purpose (s 4(a3)), which is why the figure is usually shown as 8.6667 weeks.

After that first 10 years, section 4(2)(a)(i)(B) adds a further month, 4.3333 weeks, for every additional 5 years of continuous service with the same employer.

On a termination payout, the amount owed for a part-completed 5-year block is worked out as a proportionate share, so it grows continuously rather than jumping only at each 5-year mark. The right to actually take that extra leave while still employed, though, arrives only once a full 5-year block is complete.

Pro-Rata Leave Before 10 Years

Section 4(2)(a)(iii) allows a pro-rata payment, on the 2-months-per-10-years basis, once an employee has completed at least 5 years of service, but only where the employment ends for one of a specific list of reasons: the employer ends it for a reason other than the worker's serious and wilful misconduct, the worker resigns because of illness, incapacity, or a domestic or other pressing necessity, or the worker dies.

A worker who resigns for an ordinary reason before 10 years, outside that list, is not entitled to a pro-rata payment under the Act.

Once a worker passes 10 years and is partway through the next 5-year block, section 4(2)(a)(ii) widens the rule: between 10 and 15 years, a proportionate payment (on the basis of 3 months for 15 years) is available on termination for any reason at all, including a plain resignation.

Cashing Out Long Service Leave While Employed

Section 4(8) of the Act does not just leave cashing out unaddressed. It expressly prohibits it: "payment shall not be made by an employer to a worker in lieu of any long service leave or part thereof to which the worker is entitled under this Act nor shall any such payment be accepted by the worker."

The only carve-out is subsection (5), which deals with payment on termination or death, a separate situation from cashing out leave while the employment continues.

Taking Leave in Advance

Section 4(3A) lets an employer and worker agree to a period of long service leave of at least 1 day being taken wholly or partly in advance, before the worker has actually become entitled to it. Taking leave this way does not itself create an entitlement for the purposes of the further-accrual rules in section 4(2).

Section 4(3AA) separately allows the leave to be taken in 2 or more separate periods where employer and worker agree.

Portable Long Service Leave Schemes in NSW

Section 4(5A) lists three portable-scheme Acts: the Building and Construction Industry Long Service Payments Act 1986, the Community Services Sector (Portable Long Service Leave) Act 2024, and the Contract Cleaning Industry (Portable Long Service Leave Scheme) Act 2010. An employer must not give Act long service leave to a worker registered under one of them unless the worker applies for it. These schemes are administered by the Long Service Corporation, which lets a registered worker carry service between different employers in the same industry.

NSW has no portable scheme for the security industry; the Long Service Corporation administers only the building and construction, community services and contract cleaning schemes.

How Pay Is Calculated

Under section 3, "ordinary pay" is set as at the "prescribed date", the date immediately before the worker goes on leave or their employment ends, not the date the leave was accrued.

For a worker on a fixed ordinary time rate, ordinary pay is the greater of their current ordinary remuneration or their average weekly ordinary remuneration over the preceding 5 years. For a worker not on a fixed rate, it is the greater of their average weekly wage over the preceding 12 months or the preceding 5 years, excluding shift work, overtime and other penalty rates, plus the average weekly amount of any bonuses and the cash value of any board or lodging.

How Service Is Counted

Section 4(11)(a) counts continuous service on a permanent, casual, part-time or any other basis, under one or more contracts of employment with the same employer.

A list of specific interruptions does not break that continuity, including absence under the terms of employment, absence for illness or injury, an employer-caused break intended to avoid an obligation under the Act, an interruption from an industrial dispute or slackness of trade, an absence by leave of the employer, or any other employer-caused break where the worker returns to, or is re-employed by, the employer within 2 months.

Where a business is transmitted from one employer to another, section 4(11)(c) deems the worker's service not broken by the transmission, and treats service with the prior employer as service with the new one.

Taking the Leave: Timing and Notice

Section 4(3) requires the employer to give, and the worker to take, the leave as soon as practicable having regard to the needs of the employer's establishment, or from an agreed later date, and in one continuous period unless employer and worker agree otherwise.

Section 4(10) requires at least 1 month's notice of the date the leave will start. Section 4(10A) allows the employer to give less notice if the worker agrees to the shorter period.