I moved states. What happens to my long service leave?
Last reviewed: 14 August 2026. Every figure checked against the schemes' own websites. Information only. Each scheme is the authority on its own entitlements.
This is the question no single scheme can answer for you, because no scheme has any authority outside its own borders. Each one can tell you what it holds; none of them can tell you what the whole picture looks like. Here is the whole picture.
The rule for construction
AUSLEAVE, the schemes' own shared information point, states it plainly:
“A National Reciprocal Agreement has been entered into by every state/territory-based scheme to enable interstate construction work to count towards a worker's long service leave.”
The individual schemes say the same thing in their own words. Tasmania's TasBuild describes liaising with its interstate counterparts so that Tasmanian or interstate service is correctly recognised. Victoria's LeavePlus states that all interstate work covered under each state's scheme can count towards eligibility for a benefit in another state. South Australia's construction scheme confirms an agreement exists between schemes to recognise service.
The part that catches people: it is not automatic
Reciprocal recognition is an agreement between schemes, not a live data feed. Each scheme records the service reported to it by employers in its own jurisdiction. When you move, the new scheme does not inherit your history, and the old scheme does not forward it. Someone has to join them up, and that someone is you.
Practically, that means:
- Do not close or abandon the old record. Your service in the state you left still exists and still counts. Leaving the state does not cancel it.
- Register your interstate service with the scheme you expect to claim through. Several schemes have a specific function for this. TasBuild's worker portal, for example, has a “register interstate service” action.
- Keep evidence of who you worked for and when. Reconstructing service years later is the hardest version of this problem, and every scheme has a missing-service process that runs on evidence.
Which scheme do you actually claim through?
Generally the one where your most recent service sits. Victoria's LeavePlus states the test explicitly:
“You must claim your Long Service Leave Benefit entitlement through the state or territory in which your most recent 55 days of service was recorded.”
This matters more than it looks, because the schemes do not pay the same thing for the same decade of work. NSW [source], Queensland [source] and Western Australia [source] pay around 8.67 weeks for ten years. Victoria, South Australia, the ACT and the Northern Territory pay 13 weeks, each sourced in the table below. Same career, materially different outcome, decided by where your most recent service was recorded. It is not something you can pick after the fact, but it is worth understanding before you assume the number you were told in one state applies in another.
| Where | Scheme | Qualifying period | Entitlement | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | Long Service Corporation: Building and Construction Industry | 10 years of recognised service in the building and construction industry | 8.67 weeks of pay | Official site |
| VIC | LeavePlus (formerly CoINVEST) | 10 years of accrued service (service accrued after 1 July 2002) | 13 weeks after 10 years, accruing at 1.3 weeks per full year of service after 1 July 2002 | Official site |
| QLD | QLeave: Building and Construction Industry | 2,200 service credits (at least 10 years in the Scheme) | 8.67 weeks of long service leave | Official site |
| SA | SA Portable Long Service Leave: Construction | 2,600 service days (equivalent to 10 years full-time employment) | 13 weeks, plus another week for every additional 200 service days recorded | Official site |
| WA | MyLeave: Construction Long Service WA | 10 years of service, with a pro rata entitlement after at least 7 years of service in the construction industry | 8⅔ weeks of leave | Official site |
| TAS | TasBuild | Not stated on the scheme's site; check with the scheme | Up to 13 weeks leave, based on the salary at the time of reaching the entitlement | Official site |
| ACT | ACT Leave: Building and Construction Industry Scheme | 10 years of service (for service accrued on or after 1 January 1997) | 13 weeks for every 10 years of service | Official site |
| NT | NT Build | 65 days of long service leave credit, which is 10 years of service | 13 weeks (65 days) of long service leave | Official site |
| Coal | Coal LSL (national) | 8 years of qualifying service, sooner in some cases | 455 hours for a full-time employee after 8 years of qualifying service | Official site |
Outside construction, do not assume portability
This is the part that is genuinely misleading, because the word “portable” naturally reads as “portable anywhere”. For the non-construction schemes it usually means portable between employers, not necessarily between states.
AUSLEAVE's own wording is careful: reciprocal agreements are in place for other industries “in many cases”, and only “where there are schemes in common”. Two conditions, both of which can fail:
- The destination state may have no scheme at all in your industry. Security work is covered in Victoria and the ACT. Move to the Northern Territory, where only construction is covered, and there is no scheme to carry it into.
- Even where both states have a scheme, an agreement may not exist. South Australia's community services scheme states directly that no agreement currently exists to recognise interstate service, while its own construction scheme, run under the same banner, says one does.
| Where | Industries | Scheme | Qualifying period | Entitlement | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | Contract cleaning | Long Service Corporation: Contract Cleaning Industry | Not stated on the scheme's site; check with the scheme | Not stated on the scheme's site; check with the scheme | Official site |
| NSW | Community services, Disability services | Community Services Industry Portable Long Service Leave Scheme | 7 years of service to the industry (2,555 service credits) | 6 weeks of paid long service leave | Official site |
| VIC | Community services, Contract cleaning, Security | Portable Long Service Authority: Portable Long Service Benefits Scheme | At least 7 years of recognised service under the Scheme | 1 week of leave for every 60 weeks of recorded work | Official site |
| QLD | Contract cleaning | QLeave: Contract Cleaning Industry | 10 years of service recorded with QLeave | 8.67 weeks of long service leave | Official site |
| QLD | Community services | QLeave: Community Services Industry | 7 years of service recorded with QLeave | 6.1 weeks of long service leave | Official site |
| SA | Community services | SA Portable Long Service Leave: Community Services | 120 months of service (equivalent to 10 years) | 13 weeks, then a further 1.3 weeks accrued each year after that | Official site |
| ACT | Community sector | ACT Leave: Community Sector Scheme | 5 years of service (if registered in the ACT community sector scheme on or after 1 July 2010) | 4.33 weeks of leave for 5 years of service, then 0.867 weeks for every year after that | Official site |
| ACT | Security | ACT Leave: Security Industry Scheme | 7 years of service (if registered in the ACT security industry scheme on or after 1 January 2013) | 6.06 weeks of leave for every 7 years of service | Official site |
| ACT | Services industry | ACT Leave: Services Industry Scheme | 7 years of recorded service in the industry | 6.06 weeks of leave after 7 years, then 0.867 weeks for every year after that | Official site |
| ACT | Contract cleaning | ACT Leave: Contract Cleaning Industry Scheme | Not stated on the scheme's site; check with the scheme | Not stated on the scheme's site; check with the scheme | Official site |
The exception: black coal mining
If you work in black coal mining, none of this applies to you, and that is good news. Coal LSL is a single national scheme created under federal legislation, so moving between states does not change who holds your record or which rules apply. How Coal LSL works.
What to do this week
- List every state you have done covered work in, with rough dates and employer names.
- Contact the scheme in each one and ask what service it holds for you. Use the official links in this guide; every scheme is listed with its own phone number and site.
- Fix gaps now through each scheme's missing-service process, while the evidence still exists.
- Tell the scheme you expect to claim through about your interstate service, and ask what it needs to recognise it.
Nobody does this for you, and no scheme is going to write to you about service in a state it does not administer. That is the whole reason this gap exists, and the reason a few phone calls is often all that stands between a worker and several weeks of paid leave they already earned.