Unpaid Leave and Workers Compensation section

Important note

The following information relates to reporting on eligible wages up until 31 December 2023.

You can also visit this page for instructions on how to submit a Levy Advice form for hours worked from 1 January 2024.

Overview

Under the legislation, and subject to limited exceptions, a period where an employee is on unpaid leave does not count as qualifying service and no levy is payable. Employees on unpaid leave do not accrue qualifying service except in these cases: community service leave, operational stand-down or workers compensation.

Employers must advise Coal LSL of any periods of leave without pay or workers compensation using the Periods of unauthorised absence, unpaid leave or workers compensation section of the Levy Advice form.

Accuracy of information is crucial: providing incorrect leave information can affect an eligible employee’s ability to access their entitlement.

To amend the unauthorised or unpaid leave (L) or workers compensation (W) leave dates previously reported on a Levy Advice form, please complete and submit an Adjustment Levy Advice form to 31 Dec 2023. Employers must submit an Adjustment Levy Advice form as soon as a levy error is discovered

Full-time and part-time employees

Periods of unauthorised absence and unpaid leave can only apply to eligible full-time and part-time employees.

If no hours are worked by a full-time or part-time eligible employee for an entire reportable levy period, and they are not ceasing to be eligible (e.g. unauthorised leave, unpaid leave or workers compensation), you must:

• indicate whether the employee was on unauthorised or unpaid leave (L) or workers compensation (W) in the Leave section of the Levy Advice form

• modify their work status for either unauthorised or unpaid leave (L) or workers compensation (W) in the Employee Details section of the Levy Advice form, with zero hours worked in the Total Hours Worked column.

The work status must not be changed in the Employee Details section for a full-time or part-time employee that is on unauthorised or unpaid leave or workers compensation for only part of the reportable levy period.

In that instance, the work status must remain as full-time (F), part-time (P). The applicable leave, either unauthorised or unpaid leave (L) or workers compensation (W), must only be reported in the Leave section of the Levy Advice form.

Note that periods of unauthorised absence and unpaid leave (L) only apply to full-time and part-time employees, and do not apply to casual employees.

Casual employees

Periods of workers compensation can apply to all eligible employees, including casual employees.

If no hours are worked by a casual eligible employee receiving workers compensation for an entire reportable levy period, you must:

• indicate that the employee was on workers compensation (W) in the Leave section of the Levy Advice form

• modify their work status for workers compensation (W) in the Employee Details section of the Levy Advice form, with zero hours worked in the Total Hours Worked column.

The work status must not be changed in the Employee Details section for a casual employee that is on workers compensation for only part of the reportable levy period. In that instance, the work status must remain as casual (C) and the workers compensation (W) must only be reported in the Leave section of the Levy Advice form.

If a casual employee has not worked within the month, but is not receiving workers compensation, they should be recorded in the Employee Details section with a casual (C) work status and zero hours worked.

LSL number

LSL numbers for your current eligible employees can be obtained on the Current Employees screen of our online services. Ensure you are only using the LSL Number provided by Coal LSL (6 or 7 digits).

Employee details

The employee’s date of birth, surname and given names must be listed as per the employee’s ID, including punctuation. Nick names or aliases should not be used on the Levy Advice form.

Date leave commenced and concluded

Dates must be entered in the dd/mm/yyyy format. No words are to be used in the ‘date leave commenced’ and the ‘date leave concluded’ cells. Please use exact leave dates (day commenced and concluded) and refrain from using payroll periods dates.

Example 1  The ‘date leave concluded’ cell should remain blank until the end date is within the reportable month. Refrain from using future dates (any dates ahead of the reportable levy period) if the leave is ongoing or carries over to the next month.

When leave is ongoing, ensure you report the exact same ‘date leave commenced’ date on all the applicable Levy Advice forms.

John Smith commenced leave on 1/5/2019 and concluded 2/6/2019. On the May 2019 Levy Advice form, the date leave commenced will read:

And on the June 2019 Levy Advice form the date leave commenced and concluded will read:

Example 2  Merge consecutive leave dates into one entry, rather than listing them separately.

John Smith commenced leave on 1/5/2019 and concluded 2/6/2019. On the May 2019 Levy Advice form, instead of doing this:

Do this:

Example 3  Please ensure there are no leave date duplicates for a same employee on the Levy Advice form; duplicated leave periods for a same employee will return a form error.

John Smith commenced leave on 1/5/2019 and concluded 2/6/2019. On the May 2019 Levy Advice form, instead of doing this:

Do this:

Example 4  Please ensure all dates are accounted for, and there are no unexplained date gaps.

John Smith received workers compensation from 1/5/2020 to 20/5/2020 and ceased to be eligible on 20/5/2020. He is also listed in the Exits section of the Levy Advice form with a cessation date of 21/5/2020. It would be wrong to report it like this on the May 2019 Levy Advice form:

Exits:

Unauthorised leave:

In this example, the cessation date should have been listed 20/5/2021 in the Exits section. The extra day listed (21/5/2020), may affect the employee’s service record.