Latest employee enquiries

Employers: Understanding the questions your employees have can help with administering their long service leave. Here are some of the latest topics of interest to eligible employees. How much do you get paid when taking LSL? The Fund is managed to pay employee entitlements at the wage rate when long service leave is taken. How it works: Coal LSL collects a levy from your employer. It does not come out of your wage but is paid by your employer in addition to your salary. Like all leave, long service leave accrues as hours, not dollars. The hours of leave you take are paid through your usual employer payroll process at your usual rate of pay and work hours at the time of taking your leave entitlement. The hours of leave taken are deducted from your long service leave balance held by Coal LSL. Can LSL be accessed in the case of a serious situation? The legislation prescribes who can access entitlements and when they can be accessed. Briefly, eligible employees must complete 8 years of qualifying service to access their benefit, the only exceptions to this timeframe being for redundancy (minimum 6 years), retirement (minimum age 60), ill health or incapacity. Unfortunately, the legislation does not provide for access to long service leave benefits beyond the prescribed situations. What is the difference between an employee’s eligibility and their entitlement? Eligibility is about whether an employee meets the legislation which determines whether a person is able to accrue long service leave under the black coal mining industry long service leave scheme. If they meet the criteria then they are eligible to accrue long service leave under the scheme. If they don’t meet the criteria then they are not eligible to accrue long service leave under this scheme. Entitlement is about whether an eligible employee has accrued the minimum amount of qualifying service to be able to take long service leave hours they’ve accrued. The legislation prescribes when leave can be accessed. Briefly, eligible employees must complete 8 years of qualifying service to access their benefit, the only exceptions to this timeframe being for redundancy (minimum 6 years’ qualifying service), retirement (minimum age 60), ill health or incapacity. Why do I have to re-qualify to take my long service leave when I have been working for [employer name] for 10 years already? I was working in iron ore, gold, etc. for the same company. This long service leave scheme only applies to the black coal mining industry in Australia. The scheme is governed by legislation that is unique to eligible black coal employees and prescribes who is eligible for the scheme. To be considered an eligible employee, you must satisfy one of the definitions contained in Section 4 of the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Administration Act 1992. Accrued leave is not transferrable between other mineral mining long service leave schemes, even if the same employer operates other mining services. Qualifying service does not include certain absences such as unpaid or unauthorised leave – or working in other mineral mining. If you stop being an eligible employee of black coal mining for eight years or more, any service prior to this break period is no longer considered qualifying service. However, if you have already reached eight years’ qualifying service when you take a break of eight years or more from the industry, you will retain your prior qualifying service and any untaken leave hours that accrued for service prior to the break. Why can’t you give me an estimated leave balance over the phone? The nature of long service leave means it’s usually a while between calculations on long service leave records when we receive enquiries. We like to check your accrued hours to ensure they are calculating correctly. You will usually have your leave balance in 24-48 hours. However, if further time is required, we would call to notify you. Please see our FAQs for other questions you or your employees may have and you’re always welcome to contact us with specific enquiries, too.