AUSFA-0013 · grok-4.5 (high)<!DOCTYPE html>
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<h1>Long service leave for a national-system employee</h1>
<p>Long service leave (LSL) for most employees of a national-system employer covered by the <em>Fair Work Act 2009</em> (Cth) is <strong>not</strong> set by a single uniform national figure under the Fair Work Act or the National Employment Standards (NES). The NES deliberately leave long service leave largely to other sources of law.</p>
<p>For the great majority of employees, LSL is governed by <strong>state or territory legislation</strong>. The applicable statute is the long-service-leave law of the jurisdiction in which the employee is employed (ordinarily the place where the employee usually works). Because each state and territory maintains its own Act (or, in some cases, award or industrial-instrument overlay), the qualifying period, the amount of leave that accrues, the rate of pay, pro-rata rules, portability, and cash-out or payout on termination all differ from one jurisdiction to another. Consequently there is <strong>no single national long-service-leave entitlement that applies the same way everywhere in Australia</strong>; the answer turns on the employee’s location.</p>
<p>In short:</p>
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<li>the Fair Work Act does not prescribe a uniform LSL entitlement for national-system employees;</li>
<li>state and territory long-service-leave statutes supply the substantive rules;</li>
<li>the employee’s ordinary place of work determines which statute applies; and</li>
<li>the resulting entitlement (years of service required, weeks of leave, etc.) therefore varies across the country.</li>
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<p>Employers must identify the correct state or territory Act that covers the employee’s location and calculate LSL strictly in accordance with that law (subject to any more generous term in an enterprise agreement, modern award or contract that may apply on top of the statutory minimum).</p>
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