Long service leave in Queensland is paid leave your employees earn for staying with one business over a long stretch: 8.6667 weeks after 10 years of continuous service, then a further 4.3333 weeks for every extra 5 years they stay. It sits under the Industrial Relations Act 2016 (Qld), not the national system, so the rules are different from every other state.
Here’s the part most small employers miss. Long service leave quietly builds on your books from an employee’s first day, and it lands as a real bill the moment they reach 10 years or walk out the door. Annual leave you feel every year. This one creeps up for a decade, then arrives all at once. Get ahead of it and it’s a non-event. Ignore it and it’s a nasty surprise in a payroll run you weren’t expecting.
- 10 years gets 8.6667 weeks of paid leave. Every further 5 years adds 4.3333 weeks, so 15 years of service is worth 13 weeks.
- Seven years does not let an employee take leave. Between 7 and 10 years there’s only a pro-rata payout on termination, and only for specific reasons like redundancy or illness.
- Casuals and part-timers count too. A casual’s whole work history counts, but a break of more than 3 months between jobs can end their continuous service.
- Building, cleaning and community-services work runs through QLeave. In those industries the entitlement follows the worker across employers, not “10 years with you”.
- Unused leave is paid out when employment ends after 10 years. It’s taxed at concessional rates, separate from any redundancy payment.
How much long service leave do you get in Queensland?
An employee earns 8.6667 weeks of paid long service leave after 10 years of continuous service with the same employer. After that, they pick up another 4.3333 weeks for each extra 5 years. So someone who hits 15 years has 13 weeks owing. Past 15 years, the leave keeps building and they can take it as it accrues, with no further waiting period.
People hear “long service leave” and picture a month off. The real number is bigger. At 10 years it’s a touch over two months of paid leave, fully funded by you, and it grows from there. That’s the figure to keep in your head when you’re costing a long-tenured team.
| Continuous service | Long service leave entitlement (Queensland) |
|---|---|
| Under 7 years | None |
| 7 to under 10 years | Pro-rata payout on termination, limited reasons only |
| 10 years | 8.6667 weeks |
| 15 years | 13 weeks (the extra 4.3333 weeks kicks in) |
| Over 15 years | Keeps accruing, can be taken as it builds |
Are you entitled to long service leave after 7 years in Queensland?
This is the most misunderstood rule in Queensland long service leave, so let’s be blunt about it. Seven years does not give an employee the right to take long service leave. What it can give them is a pro-rata payout if their employment ends, and only in a short list of situations.
Under 7 years, there’s nothing owing. Once an employee passes 7 years but hasn’t reached 10, a pro-rata payment is only triggered on termination when the reason is one of these:
- the employee dies
- the employee resigns because of illness, injury, incapacity, or a domestic or other pressing necessity
- you dismiss them because of their illness, injury or incapacity
- you dismiss them for a reason other than their conduct, capacity or performance (a redundancy, for example)
- they’re unfairly dismissed
A plain resignation at 8 years to take another job? No pro-rata. But the moment someone hits 10 years, the picture changes completely: any unused leave is paid out automatically on termination, whatever the reason they leave. The Business Queensland long service leave guidance sets out the pro-rata criteria in full, and it pays to read them before you knock back a claim.
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How is long service leave calculated in Queensland?
Long service leave is paid at the employee’s ordinary rate when they take the leave, which leaves out overtime. For someone on a steady full-time salary, that’s straightforward: 8.6667 weeks at their normal weekly pay.
It gets fiddlier when hours or pay move around. For casuals, part-timers, and anyone on commission or piece rates, you average their pay (and for variable hours, their hours) to land on the ordinary weekly figure. A quick worked example: a part-timer who’s averaged 20 hours a week over their service, on $35 an hour, is on roughly $700 a week, so their 8.6667 weeks works out to about $6,067. Run the numbers on your actual averages rather than guessing, because the gap between a casual’s busy years and quiet years can swing the payout a long way.
What counts as continuous service, and what breaks it?
Continuous service is the spine of the whole entitlement, and it’s where employers trip up. Paid working time and paid leave count. Unpaid leave generally doesn’t count as service, but it usually doesn’t break the run either: you just push the employee’s anniversary date out by the length of the unpaid period.
A few things that surprise people. Continuity isn’t broken by employer-approved leave, by a stand-down for slackness in trade, or by re-employment within 3 months of a termination. Periods on workers’ compensation can count too. Transfer of the business doesn’t reset the clock either, so if you buy a business, you usually inherit the long service leave history of the staff who come with it. That’s a number worth checking before you sign, not after.
One genuinely under-known point: service performed outside Queensland can still count toward a Queensland entitlement. Recent litigation, settled when the High Court refused special leave to appeal, confirmed there’s no “substantial connection” test. If part of an employee’s service was geographically in Queensland, even a short part, the rest of their continuous service (including overseas service) can count. If you run a team that moves between states, don’t assume their interstate years are someone else’s problem.
Do casual and part-time employees get long service leave in Queensland?
Yes, and assuming otherwise is one of the more expensive mistakes a small employer can make. Since 30 March 1994, all of a casual’s continuous service counts toward long service leave. Part-timers accrue it the same way a full-timer does, with the payout scaled to the hours they actually worked.
The catch for casuals is the gap rule. A break of more than 3 months between the end of one engagement and the start of the next can end their continuous service. Regular, ongoing casual work over many years builds a real entitlement. Genuinely on-and-off work with long gaps may not. If you rely on a long-standing casual workforce, get your employment paperwork straight from the start: a clear casual employment agreement makes the engagement pattern obvious if a claim ever lands.
Can an employee take leave at half pay or cash it out?
An employee takes long service leave by agreement with you, and reasonable notice is the norm. You can agree to spread the leave at half pay over double the time, which suits a lot of people who want a longer break without the full income hit. That’s a sensible, low-cost goodwill move, and it doesn’t change the total cost to you.
Cashing out long service leave instead of taking it is tightly limited, so don’t promise it casually. The cleanest way to set everyone’s expectations on notice, timing and how requests get handled is a written long service leave policy that spells out the ground rules before anyone needs to use them.
Portable long service leave: building, cleaning and community services
Some Queensland industries run a portable scheme through QLeave, and it works on a different logic entirely. Instead of “10 years with one employer”, the entitlement follows the worker across employers in the same industry. It covers building and construction, contract cleaning, and community services, with separate schemes for coal mining and the like.
If you operate in one of these sectors, this isn’t optional admin. You register with QLeave and pay a levy or return on your workers’ service, and the scheme tracks and pays the entitlement. The trap is a builder or cleaning contractor assuming the standard “one employer for 10 years” rule applies to them when their workers are actually covered by QLeave. Check which world you’re in before you budget for it.
What happens to long service leave when employment ends?
After 10 years, any unused long service leave is paid out on termination, no matter why the person leaves. Between 7 and 10 years, it’s only paid out in the limited circumstances covered earlier. This payout is a genuine cash liability, which is exactly why provisioning for it through the employment relationship beats being blindsided at resignation. A rough way to keep it on your radar: each full-time staffer is accruing a little under one week of paid leave per year of service, so multiply your long-tenured team’s years by their weekly pay and you’ve got a ballpark of what’s sitting on your books.
The tax treatment trips employers up too. A long service leave payout on termination is not part of an employment termination payment (an ETP). It’s taxed separately, and the rate is concessional depending on when the leave accrued, using the ATO’s Schedule 7 withholding table. Leave accrued before 16 August 1978 is treated differently again. For anyone with very long service, that split actually matters to the final figure, so run it through the schedule rather than withholding at a flat guess.
How does Queensland compare to other states?
There’s no national long service leave standard. Every state and territory writes its own rules, so if you employ people across borders, you’re juggling several at once. Here’s the headline picture, but always check the relevant state Act for the detail.
| State / territory | When the entitlement matures | Headline entitlement |
|---|---|---|
| Queensland | 10 years (pro-rata 7+ on termination) | 8.6667 weeks |
| New South Wales | 10 years (pro-rata 5+ in limited cases) | About 8.67 weeks |
| Victoria | 7 years | Accrues at 1/60th of service |
| South Australia | 10 years (pro-rata 7+) | 13 weeks |
| Western Australia | 10 years (pro-rata 7+) | 8.6667 weeks |
| Tasmania | 10 years (pro-rata 7+) | 8.6667 weeks |
| Northern Territory | 10 years (pro-rata 7+) | 13 weeks |
| ACT | 7 years | 6.0667 weeks |
The differences are real, not cosmetic. Victoria lets staff take leave from 7 years, while Queensland makes them wait to 10. South Australia and the Northern Territory hand over 13 weeks at the 10-year mark, well above Queensland’s 8.6667. If your team sits in another state, our dedicated guides on long service leave in New South Wales and long service leave in Victoria walk through each set of rules.
Common long service leave mistakes Queensland employers make
Most long service leave headaches come from the same handful of wrong assumptions. Here are the ones worth ruling out now.
Treating it as discretionary. Long service leave is a legal entitlement, not a perk you hand out. You can manage the timing, but you can’t quietly decide not to fund it.
Assuming the national system covers it. The Fair Work system covers most of your employment obligations, but long service leave in Queensland runs on state law. Don’t go looking for it in the National Employment Standards.
Refusing leave without a clear basis. You can negotiate when leave is taken, but unreasonable refusal invites a dispute. There are specific rules on when you can knock back a request, and they’re worth knowing before you do. Our guide on whether employers can refuse long service leave covers where the line sits.
Not provisioning for the liability. The cash bill arrives at 10 years or on termination. Carrying it on your books from the start, rather than scrambling at resignation, is the difference between a planned cost and a cash-flow shock.
If a claim turns into a genuine dispute, that’s the point to get advice rather than guess. You can get a fixed-fee quote from a Lawpath employment lawyer and have someone check your position before it escalates.
Frequently asked questions
How much long service leave do you get after 10 years in Queensland?
8.6667 weeks of paid leave after 10 years of continuous service with the same employer. Every additional 5 years adds 4.3333 weeks, so 15 years of service is worth 13 weeks in total.
How many weeks is long service leave in Queensland?
At the 10-year mark it’s 8.6667 weeks. That climbs to 13 weeks at 15 years, and it keeps growing for service beyond that. The exact figure depends on total continuous service, so count from the employee’s first day, not from when you last thought about it.
Can you take long service leave after 7 years in Queensland?
No. Seven years doesn’t give a right to take leave. It can give a pro-rata payout if employment ends for a specific reason, such as redundancy, illness, or unfair dismissal. The right to take leave starts at 10 years.
How is long service leave calculated in Queensland?
It’s paid at the employee’s ordinary rate when they take the leave, excluding overtime. For casuals, part-timers, or anyone on commission, you average their pay and hours over their service to find the ordinary weekly figure.
Is long service leave paid?
Yes. Long service leave is paid leave at the employee’s ordinary rate. It’s only realised by taking the leave or by being paid out on termination once the entitlement has matured. There’s no payment for simply reaching a milestone if the person stays and doesn’t take it.
When does long service leave start accruing in Queensland?
From the first day of continuous service. The entitlement builds across the whole period, but an employee can’t take it until they reach 10 years (or 7 years for a pro-rata payout in limited termination cases).
Do you get a long service leave payout if you resign in Queensland?
After 10 years, yes: unused long service leave is paid out on resignation. Between 7 and 10 years, a plain resignation usually means no payout, unless the resignation is due to illness, injury, incapacity, or a pressing domestic necessity.
Do casual employees get long service leave in Queensland?
Yes. Casuals accrue long service leave, and all of their continuous service counts. The risk is the gap rule: a break of more than 3 months between engagements can end their continuous service and reset the clock.
Can an employer refuse long service leave in Queensland?
You can negotiate timing and ask for reasonable notice, but you can’t refuse a valid entitlement outright. Unreasonable refusal can lead to a dispute and a complaint to the Office of Industrial Relations. A written policy makes the process clear for everyone.
Your next step
If long service leave has been sitting in your too-hard basket, you’re in good company, and you’re not behind. Most small employers only think about it when someone nears 10 years. The fix is simple: get it documented now, while it’s calm, so the numbers and the rules are clear long before anyone makes a claim.
Start by putting a clear long service leave policy in place today, so your team knows their entitlements and you know exactly what you’re carrying. If you want to brush up on the basics first, our explainer on what a long service leave entitlement is is a good starting point, and a solid full-time employment agreement keeps every entitlement spelled out from day one.
