Victorian Long Service Act 2018 commences 1 November 2018

Key Changes

• employees will be able to apply to take long service leave after seven years’ service on a pro rata basis (previously 10 years);
• employees may take long service leave at a minimum of one day’s leave at a time;
• any period of paid parental leave and up to 12 months of unpaid parental leave will count as service, and no amount of parental leave will break continuity of service;
• the employer and employee may agree at the time that the unpaid leave commences, that a period of unpaid leave beyond 12 months will count as service;
• new methods have been introduced to calculate long service leave where an employee’s hours of work are not fixed or where they have changed over a period of employment;
• authorised departmental officers can request the production of records when investigating alleged breaches and a failure to comply with the request without reasonable excuse, will be an offence under the Act.

The accrual rate of 1/60^th of the period of continuous employment will not change under the new Act.

We recommend members undertake the following steps to ensure compliance:

• reviewing and updating payroll systems to ensure long service leave accruals include periods of parental leave.
• train managers and supervisors on the changes to ensure they appropriately respond to requests for long service leave.
• ensure ongoing compliance by auditing long service leave records..