Working outside NSW

Long service is a state responsibility. Each State and Territory has its own portable long service scheme for the building and construction industry.

Workers must be registered with the long service scheme in whichever State or Territory they work in. For example, if workers are employed by a NSW based company and they normally work in NSW, but the company sends them to Queensland on a job, the workers need to register with the Queensland scheme. Their service credits for that job will be held in the Queensland scheme.

A national reciprocal agreement exists between all the schemes in Australia. This means that work recorded in another State is recognised, and is included when calculating eligibility for paying a long service payment as well as the amount of the payment.

However, the rules of the various schemes are not the same. There are some differences in the types of work covered, the minimum claiming periods and calculation of payments.

This means that, while a worker may register and accumulate service in the scheme in NSW, the same work in another State may not be recognised and the worker may not be able to register in the long service scheme of another state. For example, contractors performing building and construction work are not eligible to belong to long service schemes in all other states as they are in NSW.

Workers should keep the NSW scheme informed if they are accumulating service in other States. This will protect their records in the NSW scheme from cancellation (or suspension) due to no recording of service for four consecutive years. Similar requirements exist in schemes of the other States. Workers with service recorded in other States or Territories should confirm specific requirements with each scheme.

Any period that a worker is not accumulating service with another scheme is counted as a non-service period. When four consecutive years of non-service are accumulated the Corporation may suspend or cancel that worker's registration. Cancellation of registration, depending on the outcome of any appeal, results in the loss of all entitlements in the scheme.

Workers in such a situation may apply to the Corporation to have such periods of work used to defer any cancellation (or suspension) action by the Corporation. This will preserve the worker's record while the circumstances continue.

As Commonwealth places fall under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth Government, work conducted on Commonwealth places cannot be credited under the NSW Building and Construction Industry Long Service Payments Act, administered by the Long Service Corporation (LSC) and we are working with the Commonwealth Government to resolve this.

Find more information on Commonwealth places.

AUSLEAVE

Ausleave provides centralised access to information about each state and territory's scheme.

Click here to update your contact details with schemes across Australia.

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