Changes to Long Services Leave Entitlements in Victoria

From 1 November 2018, the Long Service Leave Act 2018 (Vic) comes into operation.  This will have a direct effect on businesses operating in Victoria.

Here are a summary of the changes, however, if this affects your business you should get specific advice confirmed to you.  The key issues are:

• ability to  take single day periods of long service leave, rather than in larger blocks of time;
• restricted rights to refuse a request to take long service leave – employers must not refuse unless on reasonable business grounds;
• entitlements to take long service leave after 7 years continuous employment (instead of after 10 years);
• changes to the formula of calculations for those on varying hours during the last 24 months;
• preservation of continuous employment where an employee is re-employed by the employer within 12 weeks of termination of employment, including by way of resignation;
• unpaid parental leave will be taken to count toward the calculation of continuous employment;
• a widening of the transfer of business definition and the circumstances amounting to transfer of business to protect entitlements for transferring employees.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Affected employers:

• should review and update systems, including payroll systems to ensure legislative compliance;
• train and support HR staff in the changes and ensure managers are equipped to deal with long service leave queries from staff.