How employers benefit from the scheme

As a registered building and construction employer under the Building and Construction Industry Long Service Payments Act 1986 (BCILSP Act 1986), you may be entitled to compensation for a payment you make to a worker under the Long Service Leave Act 1955 (LSL Act 1955).

To be eligible for a payment, you, the employer, must notify the Long Service Corporation prior to paying a long service entitlement to your worker. Once the payment has been made, you must lodge an employer claim to us within 2 years from the date the payment was made, or an employer claim payment cannot be made to you.

If a payment was made more than 2 years ago, as the employer, you still have an obligation to lodge an employer claim so the period can be removed from the worker’s service balance and shown as ‘claimed’ on the worker’s record.

The detailed explanation

Under NSW legislation, building and construction workers are covered by the BCILSP Act 1986 as well as the LSL Act 1955.

The BCILSP Act 1986 gives building and construction workers working in NSW access to a portable benefit. However, workers who are employed for 10 years by the same employer also become entitled to long service leave from that employer under the LSL Act 1955. In some cases of termination, workers may be entitled to a proportional payment for long service leave if they have 5 or more years service with the same employer.

Click here to access information from the Office of Industrial Relations on the LSL Act 1955.

This means that workers may be entitled to a long service benefit under either act. However, they can only be paid 1 long service benefit depending on which option they select.

Option 1:

The worker chooses to take long service from their employer under the Long Service Leave Act 1955 (LSL Act 1955), which must be a period of paid leave. The employer notifies the Long Service Corporation of its intention to pay the worker prior to paying the entitlement to the worker. Once the payment has been made, the employer submits an employer claim to the Long Service Corporation, requesting payment for the period they have directly paid the worker.

When paying the employer, we will include any recorded service that has been lodged within the required 2 year time frame from the date the work was initially performed (as calculated by the Long Service Corporation in accordance with the Building and Construction Industry Long Service Payment Act 1986).

Option 2:

The worker takes a long service payment directly from the Long Service Corporation which includes any service with their current employer. This means that the employer has no further long service liability for that period of service for that worker. Depending on the circumstances, such periods could be 10 years or more and represent a considerable saving to the employer.

In all cases, we will advise employers when the Long Service Corporation pays a long service payment to a worker who has long standing employment with 1 employer.

Payments made by the Long Service Corporation are calculated at the worker's award rate of pay or, where a certified agreement is in force, at the worker's rate of pay under that agreement. Payments made by the Long Service Corporation do not include over award payments, or other informal arrangements to pay higher than the award rate or the agreement rate.