Employee FAQs

The Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Administration Act 1992, along with other legislation, specifies:

• All requirements for administration of the long service leave scheme
• Obligations employers must comply with to ensure eligible employees can access their leave when entitled to do so
• Consequences for employer non-compliance.

In addition to eligibility and entitlement, the legislation addresses:

• How an employee applies and obtains approval for leave.
• The minimum amount of leave that an employee can take at one time.
• When an employer must pay for leave that is taken.
• Ensuring there is no double counting of service or leave.

Coal LSL has the power to seek civil penalties for employer non-compliance.

• Civil proceedings may also be brought by an employee, employee organisation or industrial association for breaches or potential breaches of the Act.
• Fair Work Australia also has power to deal with certain disputes between an employer and an eligible employee in relation to leave.

When your employer advises us that you are an eligible employee, you are given an individual long service leave number known as your LSL Number.

This number is used for all interactions about your leave record and is required for logging into the Coal LSL self-service portal.

If you ever forget your LSL Number, contact our friendly Service team who will be happy to assist.

When you first register with Coal LSL you are given your unique LSL Number and a temporary password to access the self-service portal. The login details are sent separately to your initial welcome letter, for security reasons. Your LSL Number is used to log in to the portal, as well as the password, which you should change at first access. If you lose your login details, contact us for a reminder.

Coal LSL is working on improvements that enable employees to view their leave accrual information online through the self-service portal.

We’ve completed the technology upgrades. However, the most time consuming stage involves detailed data quality checks for more than 110,000 eligible employees in the black coal mining industry. You can imagine, this a big job! It’s underway; however, we still have a little way to go.

This means that some employees can currently view their leave accrual information when logged into the portal. Please note that when an update is reported by an employer, your information will temporarily be unavailable while we process the update.

We are progressively working through verifying leave entitlement information for the remainder of employees.

We want to provide you with reliable information that’s as current as possible so please bear with us while we complete the improvement.

If your leave accrual information is not available when you log into the employee portal, you can email us or call us on 1300 852 625 from Monday to Friday between 8:30am and 5:00pm (AEST).

In order to administer entitled long service leave funds for you, your employer must be a national system employer* and registered with Coal LSL. All administration of the scheme is conducted through your employer.

If you are not sure if your employer is registered with us, you can search our registered employer database or get in touch and our friendly Service team will be able to advise their status.

*The definition of ‘employer’ in Coal LSL’s legislation refers only to a national system employer as defined in section 14 of the Fair Work Act 2009.

You accrue leave hours for each week during which you are an eligible employee.

Full-time employees

Each week you work in the black coal mining industry as an eligible employee counts towards your qualifying service. After eight years’ qualifying service you accrue 455 hours of long service leave entitlement.

Part-time employees

Each week you work in the black coal mining industry as an eligible employee counts towards your qualifying service. Entitlement accrues at a rate which reflects the number of hours worked each week. The maximum accrual is the equivalent of a full-time employee.

Casual employees

You accrue qualifying service in each week you’re employed at any time as an eligible employee. It accrues at a rate which reflects the number of hours worked each week. The maximum accrual is the equivalent of a full-time employee.

If you meet the definition of eligible employee, you’re entitled to take leave after 8 years of qualifying service.

Qualifying service is service as an eligible employee of one or more employers. It does not include certain absences.

From January 2012, all service as an eligible employee counts towards your qualifying service, unless you stopped being an eligible employee for 8 continuous years or more (a break period). In most cases, any service before an 8-year break period will stop being counted as qualifying service.

Prior to 1 January 2012, the allowable break period to maintain continuous service was 3 months.

In some instances, the 8-year allowable break period can retrospectively be applied to service between 1 January 2000 and January 2012; this is dependent on the legislation in place at the time, and how it relates to your record.

If you have specific questions regarding your record, please get in touch with us.

Full-time employees

If you have eight years’ qualifying service (continuous or in total) as a full-time worker, you’re entitled to 455 hours of long service leave.

Part-time and casual employees

If your service (or part of it) was as a part-time or casual worker, you’re still entitled to leave after eight years’ qualifying service. However, the amount of leave you’ll receive is based on the leave hours you’ve accrued over your eight years of qualifying service.

Definition of working hours

• Full-time employee: 35 hours per week.
• Part-time employee: total number of ordinary working hours up to 35 per week.
• Casual worker: hours worked up to 35 hours per week.

Find out more on accruing leave.

All interactions about your leave application are conducted through your employer.

To access your long service leave entitlement, you must submit an application through your current or most recent employer. Once your desired leave period is agreed with your employer, they will lodge the application with us.

When we've validated that your service history reflects the minimum qualifying service, we'll notify your employer who will pay your leave entitlement. Your employer then claims reimbursement from the Coal LSL fund after you've taken your leave.

It’s important to note that your application form must be submitted by an authorised contact at your employer. Coal LSL cannot accept forms from employees.

More information and forms.

Occasionally we’re asked whether employees can take their long service leave at half pay to extend the duration of their leave. In brief: this matter is for discussion between an employee and their employer.

Coal LSL’s role is it validate the hours requested for a long service leave period, but how your employer makes the leave payment is by agreement between your employer and yourself.

Long service leave accrual varies during parental leave according to your circumstances.

Unpaid parental leave

• Under Coal LSL’s governing legislation, unpaid parental leave is considered to be a period of unpaid leave.
• You do not accrue leave or qualifying service while on unpaid leave.

Paid parental leave – Government-funded (Centrelink)

• There is no requirement for the government to pay a long service leave levy on government-funded paid parental leave.
• This means you do not accrue leave or qualifying service while on government-funded paid parental leave.

Paid parental leave – Employer-funded

• Coal LSL’s governing legislation does not deal with the determination of whether employer-funded paid parental leave is ‘qualifying service’. While your employer can provide this additional benefit to you, Coal LSL cannot give guidance on the provisions of your employment agreement or arrangement with your employer. You will need to discuss the matter with your employer.
• If your employer has agreed to pay you during parental leave or pay an additional amount to the government-funded paid parental leave scheme, you will continue to accrue long service leave during your parental leave.
• For further information about employer-funded paid parental leave, please speak with your employer in the first instance. If your employer has any questions on how they report the details of your leave to Coal LSL, they should contact us direct on 1300 852 625 or by email.

If you have any other general questions, please get in touch with us.

The Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Administration Act 1992 provides your minimum entitlements for long service leave, which are:

• If you take leave while employed, you are entitled to be paid at an amount equal to your base rate of pay (including incentive-based payments and bonuses) that would have been payable had you been at work (i.e. not taken the leave).
• If you are paid out your accrued leave on cessation, you’re entitled to be paid at a rate as if you had taken the leave immediately before you stopped being employed.
• Your employment contract or enterprise agreement may provide you with an enhanced entitlement, as long as that entitlement is at least as favourable as the legislation.

A range of options are available for accessing your leave when your employment changes and may vary according to your individual circumstances:

• If you resign or your employer terminates your employment, you may choose to retain your qualifying service and your leave entitlement and be paid for that accrued leave at a later date.
• If you cease to be an eligible employee and at that time have become entitled to take a period of leave, you may ask your employer to pay you for your leave not taken.
• If you cease to be an eligible employee because of ill health or retirement on or after age 60, and have any period of qualifying service, you may ask your employer to pay you for your leave credits.
• If your employment ceases because you’re made redundant and at that time have at least six years' qualifying service, you can ask your employer to pay you for your accrued leave credits. Refer to the Redundancy fact sheet.
• If you die and at the time of death you have qualifying service, your accrued leave hours can be paid to your estate.

Missing service is any service you have worked as an eligible employee which is not reflected in your Statement of Service held by Coal LSL.

If you think your record may be missing some of your qualifying service, you can apply to have this investigated by Coal LSL.

Refer to the Service Review information for details about eligibility to apply and the review process.

Only the legal personal representative of a deceased employee may make leave accrual enquiries and lodge a claim through their last known employer, in accordance with the legislation (Part 5A, Division 3, Section 39CC of the Administration Act 1992).

Your legal personal representative must make a request in writing to your last employer to pay out any unclaimed accrued leave.

The employer will submit an Entitlement Application along with a certified copy of the official Death Certificate, and liaise with Coal LSL to verify your outstanding entitlement. Your employer must pay out any accrued leave hours to your legal personal representative within 30 days.

If you wish to claim long service leave but your employer is no longer registered with us or no longer a registered company, please get in touch with us.