Western Australia Long Service Leave Calculator

How the Entitlement Is Worked Out

Section 8(2)(a) entitles an employee who has completed at least 10 years of continuous employment to 8 2/3 weeks of long service leave. Section 8(2)(b) then adds 4 1/3 weeks for every further 5 years of continuous employment completed after that.

On termination, section 8(2)(c) works out any shortfall for a part-completed block as a proportionate amount calculated on the basis of 8 2/3 weeks for 10 years of continuous employment, a continuous rate rather than a step that only pays out at each full 5-year mark. This applies where employment ends by the employee's death, or in any circumstances other than the employer dismissing the employee for serious misconduct.

Pro-Rata Leave From 7 Years

Section 8(3) entitles an employee who has completed at least 7 years but less than 10 years of continuous employment to a proportionate amount, on the same 8 2/3-weeks-per-10-years basis, where the employment ends by the employee's death or in any circumstances other than the employer dismissing the employee for serious misconduct.

That excludes only a dismissal for serious misconduct. Unlike several other states, a plain resignation before 10 years is covered, which is noticeably broader than the more limited grounds used elsewhere.

Some employees instead hold an award or agreement entitlement that is at least as favourable as the Act, which displaces the Act's default for them.

Cashing Out Accrued Leave

Section 5, inserted into the Act in 2021, lets an employer and employee agree in writing that the employee will forgo some or all of an already-accrued entitlement to long service leave under section 8(2)(a) or (b), in exchange for an adequate benefit.

A benefit is only "adequate" if the employee is paid at least the ordinary pay they would have received had they taken the leave instead. Section 5(3) makes clear that cashing out is only available once the entitlement has already accrued; it cannot be agreed in advance of that.

Taking Leave in Advance

Section 10 is a separate mechanism from cashing out: an employer may, by agreement, allow an employee to take the leave itself before the right to it has accrued. Where leave is taken this way, the employee is not entitled to any further leave for the same period until the period it was taken against has itself accrued.

If the employment then ends before that period accrues, section 10(2) lets the employer deduct from the employee's termination pay an amount representing the advance leave the employee was not, at that date, otherwise entitled to.

Portable Long Service Leave for Construction Workers

Construction industry workers in Western Australia are separately covered by the Construction Industry Portable Paid Long Service Leave Act 1985 (WA), administered by MyLeave. That scheme mirrors the general Act's figures: 8 2/3 weeks of leave after 10 years of service, with a pro-rata entitlement after at least 7 years of service in the industry.

How Pay Is Calculated

Section 7 sets ordinary pay, for most employees, as their remuneration for their normal weekly hours calculated at their ordinary time rate as at the time the leave commences. Where an employee's hours have varied, their normal weekly hours are instead the average weekly hours actually worked over the period, calculated from ascertainable hours.

An employee paid by piecework, commission, bonus, percentage reward, or any other results-based system has their ordinary pay set as their average weekly rate over the 365 days ending the day before the leave starts, or, if they cash out leave under section 5, the day before that agreement is reached.

Section 7A excludes shift premiums, overtime, penalty rates and similar allowances from ordinary pay, except that section 7B specifically includes any casual loading payable under an award, industrial agreement, employer-employee agreement, Commission order, a national workplace instrument, a contract of employment or an enactment.

How Service Is Counted

Section 6(5) treats a casual or seasonal employee as having continuous employment despite an absence from work, of any duration, that is either under the terms of the employment, caused by seasonal factors, or any other absence after which the regular and systematic nature of the employment gives the employee a reasonable expectation of returning to work.

Section 6(6) also preserves continuity where the employee is employed under 2 or more contracts with the employer, or is also employed by someone else during the same period.

Section 7H preserves continuity across a transfer of business: the employee's employment before and after the transfer is treated as a single period of continuous employment, and the new employer is treated as having been the employee's sole employer for the whole period.

Taking the Leave: Timing and Requests

Section 9(1) requires leave to be granted and taken as soon as reasonably practicable after it becomes due, in one continuous period unless employer and employee agree otherwise, subject to their agreeing when it will be taken.

Where there is no agreement on timing, the employer cannot refuse an employee taking, at a time suitable to the employee, leave that became due more than 12 months earlier, provided the employee gives at least 2 weeks' notice.

Section 9(1C) and (1D) let an employee request to take the leave over twice its normal length at half pay, or over half its normal length at double pay, though the Act does not oblige the employer to agree to either arrangement.

What This Calculator Does Not Model

This tool computes the ordinary Act entitlement at a fixed weekly pay rate. It does not compute cashing-out arrangements under section 5, advance-leave arrangements under section 10, the MyLeave construction-industry portable scheme, the piecework/commission averaging rule, or the double-length/half-pay or half-length/double-pay variants an employee can request under section 9.