Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questionsAll eligible employees working in the black coal mining industry for national system employers* are eligible for long service leave. It includes people:
An 'eligible employee' is defined in the legislation as a person who is:
If you're unsure of your/your employee's eligibility, please get in touch with us.
*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.
An 'eligible employee' is a person who is:
*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.
The definition of eligible wages in section 3B of the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Payroll Levy Collection Act 1992 is specific about which amounts are included e.g. in some circumstances an employee’s overtime or penalty rates and other allowances are eligible wages. Refer to the legislation for details.
Qualifying service is service as an ‘eligible employee’ of one or more employers. It does not include certain absences such as unpaid or unauthorised leave.
After you have accrued eight years of qualifying service, you have a long service leave entitlement. An entitlement remains until you have accessed it.
If you don’t have eight years of qualifying service and you stop being an eligible employee for eight continuous years or more, any service before this break is no longer considered as qualifying service.
However, if you recommence work as an eligible employee with any employer after a break period of less than eight continuous years, your service from prior to the break period will still be considered qualifying service.
If your employment ceases for reasons such as redundancy, retirement, ill health or death, other provisions may apply to enable early access to your long service leave entitlement. For more detail about qualifying service, refer to Part 5A – Entitlement to long service leave, Division 1, Section 39A of the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Administration Act 1992.
Employees may grant access to their spouse/partner or other trusted third party to access information about their long service leave record on their behalf.
This involves a process of validating: employee approval; third party contact details; third party access level. Access level may involve permission to only obtain information or to also make changes to the employee record.
The employee must initiate this process using the relevant form (for an individual or for an organisation); these are available under the Employee Resources panel.
Waiver agreements provide some eligible employees with an alternative to long service leave in circumstances where they are unlikely to accrue enough qualifying service to take long service leave or they are unlikely to take long service leave despite accruing the necessary qualifying service.
Instead of accruing leave, employees can choose to receive additional remuneration or additional superannuation contributions that are (at least) equal to the amount of levy which their employer would otherwise pay into the scheme on their behalf.
Waiver agreements must meet a number of legislative requirements and must be lodged with Coal LSL for approval. Coal LSL may refuse to approve a waiver agreement where it does not meet all the requirements of Coal LSL's legislation.
Legislation relating to waiver agreements is under the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Administration Act 1992 (Part 5A, 39B) and the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Administration Regulations 2018 (Regulation 7).
Regulation 7 of the Admin Regulations prescribes categories of eligible employees who may make waiver agreements with their employers. They include eligible employees who:
Resources for waiver agreement applications are available under Employer Resources.
Coal LSL has been using some terms, such as termination and cessation, interchangeably for some time.
However, ‘termination’ can mean different things in different legislation. Also, an employee may cease work or become an ‘ineligible employee’ regarding access to long service leave, but not always because they’re being ‘terminated’ by their employer. Instances where an employee may cease to be eligible can include leaving the Australian black coal mining industry, retirement, redundancy, death or changing positions into a role which does not fit the definition of an eligible employee.
Therefore, we’re in the process of aligning some terms to current long service leave legislation for consistency and clarity. These terms are changing:
There are many documents and locations where this needs to be updated so you may see both terms used until we complete the work.
Long service leave and superannuation are not the same.
Long service leave is paid leave some employees are entitled to after a long period of working for the same employer, or within an industry. Coal LSL is the Australian Government corporation established to regulate and manage long service leave entitlements on behalf of Australia's black coal mining industry.
Superannuation, or 'super', is money put aside by your employer(s) over your working life for you to live on when you retire from work (source: Australian Taxation Office). Coal LSL is not a superannuation provider. For information on superannuation, contact your super fund or your employer, or visit the Australian Tax Office website.
Coal LSL is not authorised to collect employee Tax File Number (TFN) information under privacy legislation, specifically section 8 of the Privacy (Tax File Number) Rule 2015 (TFN Rule), except where expressly authorised.
Under Section 48 of the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Administration Act 1992 (Administration Act 1992), Coal LSL may be required to collect a TFN for the purpose of making a direct payment to an eligible employee.
When a TFN is included in information sent to us, such as Missing Service Review applications and new employee registrations, to protect privacy and remain compliant with the legislation, Coal LSL can remove the TFN information before processing or ensure it’s handled securely within our systems.
If you require further information, please submit an enquiry for the attention of The Coal LSL Privacy Officer via our online form.
Alternatively, you can mail your enquiry to: The Privacy Officer Coal LSL Locked Bag 2021 Newcastle NSW 2300
More about what we do to protect employee and employer privacy.
If the information provided does not resolve your question, please get in touch with us.