- 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.
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).
- 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.
- contract cleaning industry
- hairdressing and beauty services, within the meaning of the ANZSIC, Division S, Class 9511
- accommodation and food services, including hospitality services, within the meaning of the ANZSIC, Division H.
- 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 the employer has a contract with the ACT Government.
- hairdressing and barbering services such as cutting, grooming, styling and shaving hair or beards
- hair restoration services, such as regrowth treatment
- beauty services, such as waxing, electrolysis, threading
- make-up services
- nail care, such as manicures and pedicures
- non-medical skin care, such as facials
- tanning, such as spray-tans.
- front of house services, such as a receptionist, host, housekeeper, concierge, room attendant, parking attendant etc.
- serving food and/or beverages to customers for consumption generally on the premises, performed by a server, waitstaff, cashier etc.
- preparing food and/or beverages to be served to customers for consumption generally on the premises, such as a chef, kitchenhand, barista, bartender etc.
- serving food and/or beverages to customers for consumption generally on the premises, performed by a server, waitstaff, cashier etc.
- preparing food and/or beverages to be served to customers for consumption generally on the premises, performed by a chef, kitchenhand, barista, bartender etc.
- serving food and/or beverages to customers for consumption on or off the premises
- preparing food and/or beverages to be served to customers for consumption on or off the premises, which could be performed by a chef, kitchenhand, barista, bartender etc.
- airline food catering
- general catering for specified events or locations.
- serving food and/or beverages to customers for consumption generally on the premises, performed by a server, waitstaff, cashier etc.
- preparing food and/or beverages to be served to customers for consumption generally on the premises, performed by a chef, kitchenhand, barista, bartender etc.
- serving food and/or beverages to customers for consumption generally on the premises, performed by a server, waitstaff, cashier etc.
- preparing food and/or beverages to be served to customers for consumption generally on the premises, performed by a chef, kitchenhand, barista, bartender etc.
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.
Visit the Services page for more information.
Building and construction
- 10 years (2200 days) of service in the industry
- 7 years (1540 days) for leaving the industry.
- 5 years (1100 days) for total incapacity, age retirement (ages 55 and over) and deceased claims.
- 5 years (1100 days) for leaving the industry.
- 55 days+ for total incapacity, age retirement (ages 55 and over) or deceased claims.
Contract cleaning
- 7 years (2555 days) of service in the industry.
- 5 years (1825 days) for leaving the industry, total incapacity, age retirement (ages 55 and over) and deceased claims.
- 5 years (1825 days) for leaving the industry
- 55 days+ for total incapacity, age retirement (ages 55 and over) or deceased claims.
Community sector
- 5 years (1825 days) of service in the industry.
- 5 years (1825 days) for leaving the industry, total incapacity, age retirement (ages 55 and over) and deceased claims.
- 5 years (1825 days) for leaving the industry
- 55 days+ for total incapacity, age retirement (ages 55 and over) or deceased claims.
Security
- 7 years (2555 days) of service in the industry.
- 5 years (1825 days) for leaving the industry, total incapacity, age retirement (ages 55 and over) and deceased claims.
Services
- 7 years (2555 days) of service in the industry.
- 5 years (1825 days) for leaving the industry, total incapacity, age retirement (ages 55 and over) and deceased claims.
- 5 years (1825 days) for leaving the industry
- 55 days+ for total incapacity, age retirement (ages 55 and over) or deceased claims.
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.
Services Industry Scheme employers will be able to pre-register from December 2024 to prepare for scheme commencement on 1 April 2025. Keep an eye on the Services industry pages for more information as it becomes available.
Services Industry Scheme employers will be able to pre-register from December 2024 to prepare for scheme commencement on 1 April 2025.
Your registration will be finalised when the scheme starts on 1 April 2025.
Your employees will be registered when you submit your first quarterly return in July 2025.
Keep an eye on the Services industry pages for more information as it becomes available.
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 are a Services Industry Scheme employer, your employees will be registered for portable long service leave after you submit your first quarterly return in July 2025.
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 be able to access a statement from us in August/September each year in the worker portal. 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, s ervice 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 .
A contractor may benefit from registering if they have already accrued employee service and wish to just make up the remaining credited days to be eligible to claim.
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:- Building & Construction
- Community Sector
- Contract Cleaning
- Security
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.
Levy payments to the scheme are contributions made to fund scheme costs and cover both fixed costs of administration and future liabilities to meet portable long service leave benefits that reach an entitlement. Levy rates are regularly reviewed and are informed by an actuarial assessment that considers factors including:
- expected investment terms and returns, industry demographics and wages, industry growth rates; and
- the rate at which covered workers are expected to accrue an entitlement in the future, or leave the scheme without receiving a long service leave payment/entitlement.
If more than the expected number of employees exit an industry scheme, this will offset future scheme costs by levies paid. Employee benefits are not equal to the levy payments contributed for the employee. For example, apprentice wages are exempt from the levy calculation, however apprentices accrue service that contributes to their future entitlement.
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.
Please note Australian School-based Apprentices (ASBAs) are not classified as an apprentice under the Long Service Leave (Portable Schemes) Act 2009, therefore levies are payable on their reported gross ordinary wages.
- Building and construction: 2.35% (changing to 2.75% from 1 October 2024)
- Contract cleaning: 1.07%
- Community: 1.85%
- Security: 1.47%
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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- Building and construction
- Contract cleaning
- Community sector
- Security
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).
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.
