Portable long service in NSW: building, cleaning and community services

Why these industries are different

Ordinary long service leave rewards years with one employer. The NSW Government’s page says portable schemes recognise continuous service within an industry instead, for workers who stay in one industry for many years but often change employers. The Long Service Corporation administers all three schemes; it was first set up as a statutory body to run the building and construction scheme.

Community services, from 1 July 2025

The newest scheme reaches by an organisation’s purpose as well as by the work itself, so it takes the closest reading. The NSW Government’s Easy Read page says it started on 1 July 2025, and from that date every workplace in it pays into it every 3 months. The Community Services Sector (Portable Long Service Leave) Act 2024, in the version current from 2 July 2025, carries the note: “The provisions displayed in this version of the legislation have all commenced.”

Is the work community service work?

Section 4(1) of the Act says community service work means work to provide a community service, or “work for an employer, if the predominant purpose of the employer is to provide a community service”; the services are those in Schedule 1 or prescribed by the regulations (section 4(2)). The Long Service Corporation’s self-assessment, which it calls the ‘predominant purpose’ test, sorts employers two ways:

• where the organisation’s predominant purpose is “to provide a community service”, it registers all its workers, “whether they do community service work or not”
• where it is not, it registers only the service of the workers who do community service work.

An organisation based outside NSW may still have to take part, and the Corporation may run compliance reviews of a registered employer’s eligibility.

The deadlines in the Act

1. 1 month

   A person who becomes an employer on or after the Act’s commencement applies to register “1 month after becoming an employer”, or within a longer period the Corporation specifies; the maximum penalty is 50 penalty units (section 10(2)).

2. 3 months and 14 days

   If a worker has not applied to register within 3 months of starting community service work for an employer, the employer applies for them within 14 days after that 3-month period ends; the maximum penalty is 20 penalty units (section 14(2)).

3. Every 3 months

   The workplace confirms to the Corporation that each worker still works there.

A self-employed contractor registers as both an employer and a worker, and one who employs at least one person doing community service work adds both that person and themselves as workers.

On the worker’s side, the scheme’s page says a worker is entitled to approximately 6.1 weeks of paid leave after 7 years of recognised service in the industry. The Easy Read page adds a year of foundation worker service credit for some people who worked in community services between 1 July 2025 and 31 December 2025, and says leave is taken at least 2 weeks at a time.

Building and construction: a levy on the work

This scheme reaches a business two ways. An employer of building and construction workers has its own duty under section 16A of the Building and Construction Industry Long Service Payments Act 1986: an employer who employs a worker under a contract of employment “must notify the Corporation of that employment within 7 days after the worker commences to perform building and construction work in New South Wales under that contract”, with a maximum penalty of 20 penalty units. The levy is set by the project. As the Long Service Corporation’s levy page read on 9 October 2026:

• the levy applies to building and construction works of $250,000 or more, at 0.25% of the cost of the works including GST
• building work can only start after the levy is paid, and a council or accredited certifier releases a Construction Certificate or Complying Development Certificate only once it is paid
• instalments may be available for projects costing $10 million or more that will take more than 12 months to build, applied for before work starts
• owner-builders, churches and non-profit organisations may be eligible for partial exemptions or discounts, with a maximum discount of 50% and a minimum levy of $50.

Not paying the correct levy before construction starts may lead to fines, penalties or prosecution.

Contract cleaning

The contract cleaning scheme’s mark is the simplest: registration within one month of first employing someone to do cleaning work. A business that later operates under a new entity and employs workers on wages completes a new employer registration.

Where the schemes meet ordinary long service leave

Under section 4(5A) of the Long Service Leave Act 1955, an employer must not give long service leave to a person registered under any of the three scheme Acts unless that worker applies for it, and section 4(5B) applies the same rule to a payment. In November 2024 the NSW Government passed an amending Act to prevent a worker’s registration being cancelled because work on Commonwealth places broke their service credits. Black coal mining sits outside these schemes, under a national scheme run by Coal LSL.