Queensland Long Service Leave Calculator

How the Entitlement Is Worked Out

Section 95(2)(a) entitles an employee who has completed 10 years of continuous service to 8.6667 weeks of long service leave on full pay. Once the employee has completed at least a further 5 years of continuous service, section 95(2)(b) adds a period proportionate to the whole further period of service, on the same 8.6667-weeks-per-10-years basis.

On a termination payout, section 95(3), (4) and (7) define a "proportionate payment" as a straight, continuous ratio of the employee's total service to 10 years, applied against 8.6667 weeks. For example, an employee terminated at 13 years is owed 13/10 of 8.6667 weeks, not simply 8.6667 weeks plus nothing until the next full 5-year block.

Pro-Rata Leave Before 10 Years

Section 95(3) entitles an employee who has completed at least 7 years of continuous service to a proportionate payment on termination of their service.

Before 10 years, section 95(4) limits that payment to specific circumstances: the employee's service ends because of their death; the employee resigns because of illness, or a domestic or other pressing necessity; the employer dismisses the employee because of illness, or for a reason other than the employee's conduct, capacity or performance (which covers redundancy); the employee is unfairly dismissed; or a fixed-term engagement ends where the employee reasonably expected it would continue to at least 10 years and was prepared to continue.

Section 95(6) guarantees that an employee whose long service leave comes from somewhere other than the Act gets leave at least as favourable as the Act's.

Cashing Out Long Service Leave While Employed

There is no free-standing right to cash out long service leave under the Act. Section 110 allows a payment instead of taking the leave only if a relevant industrial instrument provides for it and the employee and employer sign an agreement for the payment, made in line with that instrument.

Where no industrial instrument allows it, section 110 lets the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission order the payment instead, but only on compassionate grounds or on the ground of financial hardship, on the employee's application. The full bench of the Commission is barred from making a general ruling that allows cashing out.

Taking Leave in Advance

Unlike New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia, Queensland's Act does not provide for taking long service leave before it has accrued. Section 97 deals with when leave is taken: by agreement, or, failing agreement, on the employer's decision with at least 3 months' written notice of at least 4 weeks of leave. Section 97(1) also lets the Commission put terms about when and how leave may be taken into an industrial instrument.

Portable Long Service Leave Schemes in Queensland

Queensland has three portable long service leave schemes, under the Building and Construction Industry (Portable Long Service Leave) Act 1991, the Community Services Industry (Portable Long Service Leave) Act 2020 and the Contract Cleaning Industry (Portable Long Service Leave) Act 2005, administered by QLeave. Section 110's limits on payment instead of leave apply to those scheme entitlements too.

How Pay Is Calculated

For most employees, section 98 sets the pay rate as the ordinary rate being paid immediately before the leave or, if the employee is then being paid at a higher rate than the ordinary rate, that higher rate. An employer must not cut an employee's usual rate beforehand to avoid paying the higher rate, and the Commission can order payment at the usual rate if it does.

A different rule applies to a casual or regular part-time employee under section 105, based on the actual ordinary hours they worked over their whole period of continuous service, and to an employee paid partly or wholly by commission under section 99, whose rate is averaged over the year before leave is taken. The commission formula in section 99 can be displaced by an instrument, contract or Commission order; section 105 sets a minimum.

How Service Is Counted

Section 103 treats a casual employee's service as continuous even where the employment is broken, not full-time, held under 2 or more contracts, or combined with other employment during the period, provided no break between one contract ending and the next starting exceeds 3 months.

Section 132 preserves continuity of service where a business (a "calling") transfers to a new employer, including where an employee is dismissed shortly before the transfer and re-employed by the new employer shortly after. Section 134 sets out further continuity rules covering partnerships, lending or hiring out an employee, approved leave including illness or injury, re-employment within 3 months, and interruptions caused by the employer to avoid an obligation, an industrial dispute, or slackness of trade, though section 134(9) generally does not count the gap itself as service unless the Act, an instrument or the Commission says otherwise.

What This Calculator Does Not Model

This tool computes the ordinary Division 9 entitlement for a full-time employee at a fixed weekly rate. It does not compute the separate casual/part-time formula in section 105, the commission-averaging formula in section 99, QLeave's own portable-scheme accrual (which uses its own rate and threshold, separate from the general Act), or any better entitlement set by an award or agreement.