Portable Long Service Leave for Construction Workers

What it is

Long service leave in Australia is normally tied to continuous service with one employer. The construction industry is different. Because tradespeople move between builders constantly, every state and territory operates a portable long service leave scheme that follows the worker rather than the job. The worker accrues credits in a single industry fund regardless of how many builders they work for, and the fund pays the leave when the worker takes it.

Each scheme is statutory, run by a board or authority, and funded by a compulsory employer levy. Builders cannot opt out and they cannot self-fund equivalent leave instead.

The schemes by jurisdiction

The scheme administrators and governing acts as of 2026:

• Victoria: CoINVEST Ltd, now branded LeavePlus, under the Construction Industry Long Service Leave Act 1997 (Vic)
• New South Wales: Long Service Corporation under the Building and Construction Industry Long Service Payments Act 1986 (NSW)
• Queensland: QLeave under the Building and Construction Industry (Portable Long Service Leave) Act 1991 (Qld)
• Western Australia: MyLeave (Construction Industry Long Service Leave Payments Board) under the Construction Industry Portable Paid Long Service Leave Act 1985 (WA)
• South Australia: Construction Industry Long Service Leave Board under the Construction Industry Long Service Leave Act 1987 (SA)
• Tasmania: TasBuild under the Construction Industry (Long Service) Act 1997 (Tas)
• ACT: ACT Long Service Leave Authority under the Long Service Leave (Portable Schemes) Act 2009 (ACT)
• Northern Territory: NT Build under the Construction Industry Long Service Leave and Benefits Act 2005 (NT)

There is also a separate Commonwealth-style training levy scheme in WA, the Building and Construction Industry Training Fund (BCITF), but that is a training levy, not a long service leave scheme.

How levies work

Employers register with the scheme in the state where the worker performs the work and report each worker''s service days and gross ordinary earnings. The scheme charges the employer a levy, usually a percentage of the worker''s ordinary wages. In Victoria the CoINVEST levy is set under section 28 of the 1997 Act and reviewed regularly. In Queensland the QLeave levy is a percentage of the cost of building work over a threshold, paid by the project owner at building approval and then top-ups during the project.

The mechanism varies but the principle is the same. Employers either pay quarterly per-worker contributions or the project pays a single project-cost levy that funds the scheme on behalf of every worker on site.

Registration

Employers performing construction work in a state must register with the scheme. Registration is free. Failure to register exposes the builder to backdated levies plus penalty interest plus prosecution. Scheme inspectors regularly cross-check building approval data, contractor licensing data and payroll tax data to find unregistered employers.

Working subcontractors who are sole traders or partners in a partnership can also register in their own right in most schemes. They self-pay the levy, accumulate their own credits and become entitled to the same leave benefit when they reach the qualifying service period.

How workers accrue and use leave

Once a worker has registered service days in a scheme, those days accrue across employers. The typical qualifying period is 10 years of registered service for full entitlement, with a reduced entitlement payable after seven years on termination in some schemes.

When the worker takes the leave the scheme pays the worker directly at their current ordinary weekly wage. The employer does not pay anything during the leave because the levy already covered the entitlement. That separation is what makes the scheme work for an industry with high mobility.

Reciprocity between states

The state schemes have signed a reciprocal agreement so a worker who moves between Victoria and Queensland does not lose their credits. Days served in one state can be transferred to the new state''s scheme on application. The credits are added to the receiving scheme''s ledger so the worker eventually qualifies under one administrator''s rules.

What builders need to do

A residential builder operating in any state should:

• register the business with the relevant scheme before putting on a worker
• report each worker''s service days and ordinary earnings on the schedule the scheme sets
• pay the levy by the due date and keep the receipt with payroll records
• include working subbies on the return if the state scheme covers them and they are not separately registered
• check reciprocity when hiring a worker who has come from interstate, and provide their scheme registration number so credits transfer cleanly