Background
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Long service leave is an entitlement an employee generally receives after working for the same employer for a specific period of time.
In the ACT, traditional long service leave is administered by Worksafe ACT in accordance with the Long Service Leave Act (1976)
There are some industries where employees don’t typically work for the same employer for a long period of time. This is why the ACT Government introduced the Long Service Leave (Portable Schemes) Act 2009. Portable long service leave allows employees to receive long service leave entitlements, even if they work for more than one employer within the same covered industry.
Self-employed contractors can benefit from the scheme too.
ACT Leave is a statutory authority of the ACT Government, set up under the Long Service Leave (Portable Schemes) Act 2009 to ensure that workers who undertake relevant work in covered industries receive the valuable benefits of long service leave. We also give employers the support, tools, and information they need to make this happen.
Industry scheme information
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Workers who perform relevant work in the following industries are eligible for portable long service leave.
In 2025, the ACT Government is expanding portable long service leave to a new services industry scheme. Contract cleaning will be automatically moved across to the new scheme (no action is needed), with the new scheme to also cover workers performing:
- Hairdressing and beauty services
- Accommodation and food services.
Keep an eye on the Services page for updates.
Relevant work is the type of work described in the Act that determines if someone is eligible for portable long service leave.
Relevant work in the construction industry in the ACT includes:
- construction, reconstruction, renovation, repair, alteration, demolition or maintenance of:
- buildings, fences or swimming pools
- roadworks, light rail and other railways, airfields or other works for the carriage of people, animals or vehicles
- breakwaters, docks, jetties, piers, wharves or works for the improvement or alteration of a harbour, river or watercourse for the purpose of navigation
- works for the storage or supply of water or the irrigation of land
- works for the carriage, treatment or disposal of sewage or the effluent from any premises
- bridges, viaducts, aqueducts, tunnels or pipelines
- chimney stacks, cooling towers, drilling rigs, gas holders or silos
- structures, fixtures or works for use in any building or works mentioned above
- navigational lights, beacons or markers
- works for the drainage of land
- works for the storage of liquids (other than water) or gases
- works for the transmission of electric power or wireless or telegraphic communications
- pile driving and site preparation
- installing data cabling or security or electronic communication systems
- laying floor coverings
- hard landscaping.
- Eligible workers include apprentices and full time, part time and casual employees.
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It is also considered relevant work if a person directly supervises a worker performing relevant work. However, work undertaken as a Project Manager or Site Safety Officer for example would not be considered relevant work because they are managing the project/work rather than directly supervising the employee.
Relevant work in the community sector in the ACT includes:
- Approved education and care services under the Education and Care Services National Law (ACT) Act 2011
- Residential care services, including
- care accommodation or homes for disadvantaged people where nursing or medical care are not provided as a major service
- residential aged care
- residential corrective services for young offenders.
- Community aged care services.
- Non-residential care welfare services not covered in other relevant community sector work.
- Fundraising services for welfare services.
- Employment placement services for people with disability.
- Community service advocacy services.
Relevant work in the security industry in the ACT includes:
- patrol guards
- cash-in transit guards
- guards with firearm or dog
- monitoring centre operators
- bodyguards
- security consultants (person whose function is to identify and analyse security risks and provide solutions, management strategies or both to minimise security risks)
- crowd controllers.
Relevant work does not include work that relates to security equipment such as advice, sales, maintenance, installation or repair.
It also does not include work performed by a person who is a casino employee under the Casino Control Act 2006 as well as a person who is performing a security activity in relation to an information system (including the computer hardware for the system).
Relevant contract cleaning work in the ACT includes:
- work that has a sole or main purpose of making or keeping premises clean
- collecting or sorting waste at or for a waste management facility, provided that the employer has a contract with the ACT Government.
- This includes drivers and sorters for waste management facilities under contract with the ACT Government, from 1 July 2016.
Relevant work in the services industry scheme in the ACT includes:
Cleaning services
All contract cleaning work in the ACT, for example:
- work that has a sole or main purpose of making or keeping premises clean
- collecting or sorting waste at or for a waste management facility, provided that the employer has a contract with the ACT Government.
Hairdressing and beauty services
Businesses classified under ANZSIC Division S Class 9511.
- hairdressing services, including barbers
- beauty services, for example:
- applying makeup
- facials
- nail care.
Accommodation and food services
Businesses providing services classified under ANZSIC Division H.
- short-term accommodation for visitors, such as hotels, motels and camping ground operations, for example:
- caravan parks
- holiday houses and flats
- resorts
- serviced apartments
- ski-lodges
- student residences (except boarding schools)
- youth hostels
- food service businesses supplying meals, snacks or drinks to customers, for example:
- cafes and restaurants
- takeaways and mobile food vans
- catering services which provide food or drinks at a certain place or event
- pubs, taverns, bars and nightclubs
- clubs providing hospitality to members, such as gambling, sporting or other social and entertainment facilities.
Businesses not covered under the scheme
The scheme does not cover:
- casinos and other gambling institutions
- amusement and recreation parks
- theatre restaurants
- businesses mainly engaged in:
- medical skin care services such as cosmetic surgery and dermatology
- medical or surgical hair replacement or transplant services
- medical tattooing and piercing services
- massage services
- long-term property operation, including long-term caravans and cabins
- retail operation, such as the purchasing and onselling of goods to the general public
- retailing baked goods manufactured on or off the premises
- selling liquor for drinking off premises
- sporting or physical recreation opportunities to participants, or entertainment for spectators (e.g. sporting clubs).
All employers and workers in the contract cleaning industry already registered with ACT Leave, will automatically be transferred to the new Services Industry Scheme when it starts.
New contract cleaning industry employers not previously registered with ACT Leave will need to register.
Keep an eye on the Services page for updates.
Building and construction
Entitlement |
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Other entitlements for workers registered after 1 July 2012 |
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Other entitlements for workers registered before 1 July 2012 |
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Contract cleaning
Entitlement |
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Other entitlements for workers registered after 1 July 2012 |
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Other entitlements for workers registered before 1 July 2012 |
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Community sector
Entitlement |
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Other entitlements for workers registered after 1 July 2012 |
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Other entitlements for workers registered before 1 July 2012 |
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Security
Entitlement |
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Other entitlements for workers |
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Registering as an employer
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If you have employees that perform relevant work in the ACT, then you are required by law to register with us no later than one month after becoming an employer for the covered industry, or by the end of any additional time the Registrar allows.
To register, you need to complete and submit an Employer Registration form.
Please contact us if you have a large number of employees to register or are unsure if you need to backdate service.
If you are registering your business for the first time, there are fields on the Employer Registration form to include your employees.
Please contact us if you have a large number of employees to register. If you are already registered as an Employer, and just want to register employees, you can include your new employees in your next quarterly return submission.
If you have employees performing relevant work in the ACT, you must be registered. Only employees performing relevant work in the ACT are required to have their service recorded with ACT Leave.
You will receive an email including login details to the online portal, information on how to complete your quarterly returns, along with a Certificate of Registration.
Once registered, you will receive login details for the online portal where you can lodge your quarterly returns. You need to declare the total ordinary remuneration and any other required information, for your employees each quarter and pay the associated levy which is calculated on the combined total of the ordinary remuneration declared for your employees.
Registering as an employee
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If you are employed by a business/organisation in one of these industries, and you are performing relevant work, your employer is required to register you. For more information about what is considered relevant work in your industry, visit the relevant industry page. If you are unsure whether you are registered, contact us.
Once registered, we’ll send correspondence with your registration number and instructions on accessing the client portal. If you don’t think you have been registered and you have not received your registration details, contact us.
You will also receive a statement from us each year. It will show how many days you worked in the year, what employers you have worked for, and the wages that have been recorded for you. This information is very important as it is used to work out your portable long service leave entitlement. When you get your statement, you should check that the information is correct and contact us if something looks wrong. If you do not receive a statement, we might not have your current contact information—log in to the portal or contact us to update your details.
Registering as a contractor
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Contractor registration is voluntary for working directors, sole traders, or individual partners in a partnership. However, if you have previously been registered as an employee, service recorded a contractor builds to an entitlement. Service can be backdated 12 months from when you first register.
Before you are entitled to claim, you will need to make quarterly contributions for a minimum of 5 years for contract cleaning, community sector, and security industry schemes, and a minimum of 7 years for building and construction. When you claim, instead of taking leave, we’ll give you back the amount you paid in levies plus interest. You will not be able to claim back any payments if you do not have the minimum years of service recorded.
To register as a contractor, complete and submit the Contractor/Working Director Registration form.
When you claim, instead of taking leave, we’ll give you back the amount you paid in levies plus interest. If the scheme fund investment made a return, you’ll receive interest of 75% of the rate of return (less any associated fees) or nil (if the fund did not make a return or made a loss). View current interest rates for your industry:
If you have never been registered with ACT Leave and you want to register as a contractor, you will need to make quarterly contributions for a minimum of 7 years for construction, and 5 years for contract cleaning, community sector and security industry schemes, before you are entitled to claim.
If you are unsure whether you have previously been registered as an employee, contact us.
If you have no employees performing relevant work within the ACT, then you do not have to register your business.
You will receive correspondence with your registration and online portal login details as well as information on how to complete your quarterly returns.
If you have both a business registration and a contractor registration, they can be linked together, if requested. You will then be able to log in to the employer portal to complete both your contractor and employer returns. Contact us to set this up for you.
Employee service
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You record service by completing a return each quarter, which will require you to log in to the employer portal and update the required information (or upload a csv file) for those employees who performed relevant work within the quarterly period.
You will receive detailed information on how to complete your quarterly returns after you register. There are also user guides available for download within the portal.
You need to record service for your employees performing relevant work every quarter. You will receive reminder notifications via email when a new return is generated.
You need to record the employee’s total gross ordinary wages earned for the quarter and days worked for the construction scheme.
Download the relevant industry Quarterly Returns Calendar from our Resources page.
If you are not sure whether you have been registered, contact us,
To check your service record, you can log in to the online worker portal using your registration details (if known). You can also update your contact details in the portal.
If you do not know your registration details, contact us for assistance.
If you don’t think your employer has recorded your service for work you have done in a covered industry in the ACT, you can complete a Missing Service Claim form. If you have any questions about missing service, contact us.
Workers are classified as either employees or contractors. If you are an employee performing relevant work in the ACT, then it is a legal requirement that your employer records your long service leave with ACT Leave.
If you are a contractor, it is up to you to record service if you wish to accrue a long service leave entitlement. It is not mandatory to register as a contractor.
Contractor service
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Service is recorded by lodging quarterly returns through the client portal. Each quarter you’ll declare how many days you worked and your gross ordinary wages or profit part of your income for the period.
Once you have registered as a contractor with us, we will send you detailed instructions on how to complete your quarterly return.
You can backdate your service up to 1 year from the date your contractor registration has been approved.
Quarterly returns
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Employers record service for their eligible employees by submitting quarterly returns through the employer portal.
As an employer, you can either directly enter return information or, alternatively, download, complete and upload information in a CSV file.
Once a return is submitted, you will receive confirmation of the levy due and instructions on how to make a payment.
If you are a contractor, you need to submit you own service information through the quarterly return process.
Returns must be submitted and paid by the end of the month following each quarter.
| Quarter | Due date |
| Jan-Mar | 30 April |
| Apr-Jun | 31 July |
| Jul-Sep | 31 October |
| Oct-Dec | 31 January |
Download a Quarterly Return Calendar from our Resources page.
Contact us before the due date to request an extension of time and avoid penalties for late payment.
If you have not registered an employee and need to backdate their service, you will need to either add them onto the current return and include their original start date (which will prompt backdating) or you can let us know the details to be added by contacting us.
If you are a registered employer and no longer have employees, you will need to let us know so we can stop your account.
If your account is active and you have no employees, you will still need to lodge a nil return. If you have not lodged a nil return by the due date or advised us in writing that you would like to stop the account, you may receive penalties for late lodgement.
Gross ordinary wages are needed for you to submit your quarterly return. Gross ordinary wages are the ordinary remuneration of an employee before tax is deducted.
Ordinary remuneration means the amount paid or payable to the person for work other than any amounts for:
- overtime
- expenses incurred by the person
- the use of materials, equipment or a motor vehicle provided by the person.
Included in gross ordinary wages
- Gross Ordinary Wages
- Any above/over award payments
- Casual loading
- Night shift, weekend work and public holiday penalty rates – only for normal rostered shifts forming ordinary hours of duty (excluding overtime)
- Annual leave – when taken as leave
- Sick leave
- Family and domestic violence leave
- Parental leave paid by the employer
- Carer’s leave
- Bereavement leave
- Other paid leave (e.g. rain days)
- Public holidays
- Rostered days off (RDO’s)
- Jury duty
- First aid allowance
- Workers’ compensation (when payment is made by the employer in the first instance and then reimbursed by the insurance company)
- Apprentice tech/school days.
Not included in gross ordinary wages
- Overtime
- One-off bonuses
- Ex-gratia payments
- Payments for days worked outside of the ACT
- Government Parental Leave Pay scheme (paid in advance to an employer or paid directly by the Government)
- Annual leave loading
- Payments in lieu of notice
- Redundancy payments
- Lump sum payments for accrued annual leave, sick leave or long service leave paid on termination
- Workers’ compensation where payments are made directly by the insurance company
- Payments for materials & equipment
- Site allowance
- Meal allowance
- Protective clothing allowance
- Travel allowance
Levy rates
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As an employer, you need to record service for your eligible employees by submitting quarterly returns. The levy payable is calculated by applying the levy rate to the gross ordinary wages recorded on the quarterly return.
Apprentice wages are exempt from the levy calculation as long as a copy of their training plan has been provided to ACT Leave.
Levies are reviewed at least every three years and vary for each industry to make sure the fund continues to maintain sufficient assets to cover the payment of worker entitlements. The current levy rates are:
- Building and construction: 2.35% (changing to 2.75% from 1 October 2024)
- Contract cleaning: 1.07%
- Community: 1.60% (changing to 1.85% from 1 July 2024)
- Security: 1.07% (changing to 1.47% from 1 July 2024)
Once a return is submitted, you will receive confirmation of the levy due and instructions on how to make a payment.
Download a Quarterly Return Calendar from our Resources page.
Claiming a benefit
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If no further information is needed to process your claim, payment will be made within 10 working days of the date you are starting your leave.
For lump sum and leaving the industry claims, payment will be processed usually within 10 working days of us receiving and confirming all information with your past employer/s or interstate jurisdictions. Except when you are leaving the industry permanently, where there is a mandatory 20 week payment waiting period from the date you stopped working permanently in the industry.
We withhold tax from your long service leave payments in line with ATO guidelines. The amount withheld will show on your end of financial year income statement in your myGov account.
Weekly marginal tax rates will be used for most portable long service leave payments, similar to the tax on your average weekly wage. To estimate the amount of tax to be withheld from your long service leave payment, please refer to the weekly tax table located on the ATO website.
Lump sum payments for long service leave on termination of employment will be taxed at different rates, depending on your service accrual dates and whether the termination is because of genuine redundancy, invalidity, or an early retirement scheme. Please refer to the Schedule 7 – tax table for unused leave payments on termination of employment located on the ATO website.
In line with ATO guidelines, we do not withhold income tax on the contractor component of a long service leave claim. Contractors should seek independent advice on the tax implications of the refund of contractor contributions and interest.
If you pay your employee in accordance with the Long Service Leave 1976 Act, you can seek a reimbursement from us (for the service that is recorded with ACT Leave only).
Complete and submit a Reimbursement to Employer form.
To be eligible to claim, you need to have reached the minimum amount of service to have an entitlement. Service can be made up of both contractor service and employee service. Contractor service will be a refund of contribution levies paid plus interest.
Contractors should seek independent advice on the tax implications of refund contributions.
Managing your account
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If your contact details are not up to date, you will not be able to receive correspondence. Contact us to update your details.
If you have changed your name, you will need to supply a copy of your change of name certificate, so we can update your details. If you don’t provide this certificate, you could end up having 2 accounts.
Your account will be deregistered if no service is recorded for 4 years. Correspondence will be sent a few months before the date your account is due to deregister. This correspondence lets you know that your account has been inactive for nearly 4 years. If you do not respond to this correspondence and no service is recorded, your account will be closed.
Contact us if you think we might not have your current contact information.
Accessing the portal
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There is a button in the top menu of our website that says Client Portal. Follow the link and select the relevant portal, worker or employer, enter your registration ID, email, and password to log in.
You can request a new password to be emailed to you through the online portal.
If you are still having problems logging in, contact us to generate a new password for you.
Leaving the industry
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Your account will be deregistered if no service is recorded for 4 years. You will be notified a few months before the date your account is due to be deregistered. The notice lets you know that your account has been inactive for nearly 4 years. If you do not respond to this correspondence and no service is recorded, then your account will close.
You may be eligible to claim an entitlement if you have left the industry permanently, are unable to work in the industry due to total incapacity or have retired (age 55+).
Please refer to the relevant industry page below for specific information or contact us to check your eligibility.
If you are a registered employer, your business is no longer operating and you no longer have employees, you need to let us know in writing so we can stop your account.
If your account is active and you have not advised us to stop your account, you must continue lodge a ‘nil return’—a return with no employee service reported—for as long as you are registered with us. Failure to lodge a quarterly return by the due date may result in penalties for late lodgement.
