# Long Service Leave for a Victorian Employee under a National-System Employer

## Short answer

The employee's long service leave (LSL) entitlement is governed by **State (Victorian) law** - specifically the **Long Service Leave Act 2018 (Vic)**. The relevant level of government is the **State government (Victoria)**, not the Commonwealth (federal) government.

There is **no single national LSL figure** that applies uniformly across Australia. LSL is set jurisdiction by jurisdiction, so the answer depends on which State or Territory the employee works in. For this employee, that is Victoria.

## Why State law, even for a national-system employer

It is tempting to assume that because the employer is a "national-system employer" covered by the **Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth)**, the federal Act must set every entitlement, including LSL. It does not.

1. **The Fair Work Act deliberately leaves LSL to State and Territory law.** The Act sets the National Employment Standards (NES), which include things like annual leave, personal/carer's leave, and notice. For long service leave, the NES does **not** create a fresh, uniform federal entitlement. Section 113 of the Fair Work Act preserves an entitlement to LSL that arises under an **applicable State or Territory long service leave law** (subject to limited carve-outs for certain pre-modernisation award-derived entitlements). In other words, the federal scheme expressly points back to State and Territory LSL statutes for the substantive entitlement.

2. **Each State and Territory has its own LSL statute, with different rules.** Because LSL is left to the States and Territories, the qualifying period and the accrual rate differ across the country. For example, the period of continuous service needed before a full entitlement arises is not the same everywhere, and the rate at which leave accrues varies too. That is exactly why you cannot quote one national number.

3. **For an employee working in Victoria, the applicable State law is the Long Service Leave Act 2018 (Vic).** This is the statute that determines whether the employee qualifies and how much leave they get.

## How the Victorian entitlement is worked out (Long Service Leave Act 2018 (Vic))

Under the Long Service Leave Act 2018 (Vic), the headline mechanics are:

- **Qualifying period:** An employee becomes entitled to take LSL after **7 years** of continuous employment with one employer.
- **Amount of leave:** The entitlement is **1/60th of the period of continuous employment** - which works out to about **8.667 weeks** of paid leave for the first 7 years of service (and it continues to accrue at that rate thereafter).
- **Pro-rata on termination:** A pro-rata entitlement is payable on termination once the employee has completed at least **7 years** of continuous employment (and in some circumstances on cessation between 7 years, the Act provides a pro-rata payout calculation rather than only at full multiples).
- **Continuous employment** is defined broadly and is generally not broken by things like paid/approved leave, business transfers, or certain absences.

The working: continuous employment / 60 = weeks of LSL. So for 7 years (≈364 weeks of service basis used in the statutory formula of 1/60th of continuous service), the entitlement is approximately **8.667 weeks** of paid leave. The leave is paid at the employee's ordinary pay (with averaging rules where hours or rates have varied).

These specific figures (7-year qualifying period, 1/60th accrual) are Victorian. An employee in, say, New South Wales or Queensland would have different qualifying periods and accrual rules under their own State Acts, which is the whole point: **LSL is not standardised nationally.**

## Bottom line

- **Governing law:** Long Service Leave Act 2018 (Vic).
- **Level of government:** State (Victoria), not Commonwealth.
- **Why:** The Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (s 113) preserves rather than replaces State/Territory LSL entitlements, so the substantive entitlement comes from the State Act of the place where the employee works.
- **No single national figure:** Because LSL is set State by State and Territory by Territory, there is no uniform Australian LSL number; here, the Victorian rules (7 years, 1/60th, ≈8.667 weeks) apply.

---

### Note on approach

I treated this as a fresh legal-information hypothetical (not advice), reasoning from the structure of Australian employment law: the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) covers national-system employers but, for long service leave specifically, defers to State and Territory statutes via s 113 rather than creating a uniform federal entitlement. I identified the employee's work location (Victoria) as the determinant of which State Act applies, named the level of government (State/Victoria), set out the relevant statute (Long Service Leave Act 2018 (Vic)) and its core mechanics (7-year qualifying period, 1/60th accrual, ≈8.667 weeks), and explained why no single national LSL figure exists. I have flagged the one or two areas (precise pro-rata thresholds and continuity carve-outs) where exact statutory detail should be confirmed against the current text of the Act.