Long service leave

About long service leave

Employees who work for one employer for a particular length of time may be entitled to long service leave, or extended leave.

In NSW, you are generally entitled to two months long service leave after working for the same employer for 10 years. You are entitled to an extra month of leave for every five years after that. This may be different if you are in another state or territory. If you work part time, you are still entitled to long service leave.

If you are a casual employee, you may still be entitled to long service leave. You should get legal advice.

Some industries, for example the building and construction industry and the contract cleaning industry, have different conditions that apply to long service leave. You should get legal advice if you are not sure about your long service leave entitlements.

You should check your award, enterprise agreement or employment contract to see what your long service leave entitlements are.

To find out how much long service leave you might be entitled to, you can use the Long Service Leave Calculator on the NSW Industrial Relations website.

Portable long service leave

Employees in some industries are entitled to portable long service leave, including security, community services, building and construction, coal mining, and contract cleaning.

This means you can accumulate and keep your long service leave if you work on different projects or for more than one employer.

For more information, see Long service leave on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

Continuous service

To be eligible for long service leave, you must be employed continuously by the same employer for at least ten years.

You can accrue long service leave if you move between full-time, part-time or casual employment, as long as you are employed continuously by the same employer.

If you resign from your job, this will break your continuous service. If you later return to work for the same employer, you will have to begin counting your continuous service from the start.

Parental leave

If you take unpaid parental leave, this doesn’t count towards, but won’t break, your continuous service. Your leave won’t count towards your continuous service even if you receive parental leave pay from the federal government. This means you will have to be employed for a longer to receive long service leave. The extra time you must work to receive long service leave is the same amount of time as your leave.

The amount of leave you take may affect the amount you are paid for long service leave, if you have fixed hours and are paid an ordinary rate.

If you receive paid parental leave from your employer, your leave will count towards your continuous service period.

Working outside of NSW

If your job requires you to work in NSW and interstate, you may be able to count the time you work interstate towards your continuous service period. You need to show your interstate work had a substantial connection to NSW. Some factors that establish a substantial connection to NSW include:

• your employment contract was made in NSW, under NSW law
• your employer is based in NSW
• your NSW based employer directed you to work interstate
• the work you did interstate was only for a short period of time
• you were working in NSW before and/or after working interstate.

For more information, see Long service leave on the NSW Government website.

Taking long service leave

You can take your long service leave as soon as you are entitled to it unless the needs of the business require you to postpone it. Your employer must give you a month's notice of the commencement date of your long service leave. 

Long service leave is usually taken as one continuous period. However, if you and your employer agree, you can take it in two or more periods depending on how much long service leave you have.

If you take long service leave, you should be paid:

• your ordinary weekly pay as at the time just before you took long service leave, or
• an average of your ordinary weekly pay over the previous five years,

whichever is more. This will not include any overtime, penalty rates, allowances, bonuses or commissions.

You should receive payment either when you start your leave or at the same time you would have received your normal pay if you had not taken the leave.

Leaving your job

If you have worked for your employer for 10 years or more and you are dismissed (sacked), resign or are made redundant, you should be paid any long service leave that you haven't taken.

If you have worked for your employer for more than five years but less than 10, you may be entitled to a long service pro-rata payment if you resign as a result of:

• illness
• incapacity
• domestic or other pressing necessity.

If you resign for one of the above reasons you need to advise the employer in writing at the time of giving notice.

You may also be entitled to a pro-rata entitlement after five years, if you are dismissed by the employer for any reason other than serious and wilful misconduct, or if you die.

For more information, see Long Service Leave NSW on the NSW Industrial Relations website.

If you have left your job and you are not sure if you should be paid for unused long service leave, you should get legal advice.

If you haven't been paid or you haven't been paid the right amount, there are steps you can take to try and recover the money that you are entitled to.

For more information, see What if my entitlements are not paid?

Last updated: December 2025