A newer Act, deliberately simpler
Victoria replaced its long service leave law in 2018, and the Long Service Leave Act 2018 (Vic) reads very differently from the older Acts most other states still run. An entitlement arises after just 7 years of continuous employment, the shortest qualifying period in the country, and it’s calculated on a single continuous formula rather than a milestone table: one week of leave for every 60 weeks worked. Run the numbers and that comes out to roughly 0.8696 weeks a year, a fraction more than the “2 months per 10 years” rate several other states use, because it’s counted in calendar weeks rather than months.
No special categories, and that's the headline
Here is the detail that catches people out, including people who worked under Victoria’s old 1992 Act and assume the rules carried over: they didn’t. A full-text search of the current 2018 Act turns up no mention of redundancy, domestic violence or pro-rata categories at all. Once an employee reaches 7 years, the accrued entitlement is payable on termination for any reason whatsoever (resignation, dismissal, redundancy, or death), with no distinction between them. There is no earlier “pro-rata if the reason qualifies” tier the way NSW, Queensland or Tasmania run one. Before 7 years, on the other hand, nothing is payable at all, regardless of why employment ends. Victoria trades away the earlier partial entitlement other states offer in exchange for a shorter, simpler wait.
Continuous employment, and the 52-week unpaid-leave line
Continuity survives annual leave, long service leave itself, paid and unpaid parental leave (capped at 104 weeks for casual and seasonal employees), carer’s and illness leave, and unpaid leave up to 52 weeks. Beyond that, it depends on specific exceptions such as a written agreement or illness/injury. Re-employment within 12 weeks of a dismissal or contract expiry (52 weeks for an apprenticeship) preserves continuity, as does a business-asset transfer where the employee’s duties continue, and a stand-down during industrial action or an equipment breakdown that isn’t the employer’s fault. Casual and seasonal employees have their own test: a gap of more than 12 weeks between engagements breaks continuity unless it’s covered by a prior agreement, the terms of engagement, seasonal factors, or a regular-and-systematic pattern of re-engagement.
How ordinary pay is worked out
Where a fixed ordinary rate applies, it’s simple: normal weekly hours at that rate, plus the value of any board or lodging. Where there’s no fixed rate (commission, casual loading, hours that changed), the Act uses whichever is greatest of three averages: the 52 weeks before leave starts, the 260 weeks (5 years) before, or the whole of the employee’s last continuous period of employment. That “greatest of three” approach protects an employee whose pay dipped recently, and it’s a materially different mechanism from states that use a single fixed averaging window.
In practice
Compare two Victorian employees who resign on the same day, one at 6 years and 11 months, the other at exactly 7 years. Under this Act that’s not a near miss. It’s the entire difference between nothing and the full accrued entitlement, because Victoria doesn’t run an earlier partial-payment tier the way NSW or Queensland do. The same is true in reverse for a business planning a restructure: an employee one week short of 7 years costs nothing in long service leave if let go before the anniversary, and the full accrued amount if let go after it. That single hard line (rather than a sliding scale) is the most practical difference a Victorian employer needs to plan around, and it’s worth checking service dates precisely rather than rounding to “about 7 years” when a termination date is being set.
Why the rate is 60 weeks, not 10 years
It’s worth pausing on why Victoria’s rate looks slightly different from the “2 months per 10 years” states. The 2018 Act runs entirely off calendar weeks, one week of leave for every 60 weeks worked, rather than a months-and-years milestone table. That’s not just a different way of expressing the same number. It means the entitlement is a genuinely continuous proportion of total service, with no stepped jumps at 15 or 20 years the way NSW, Queensland or Tasmania run one. Reach 7 years and 6 months, and the extra 6 months already counts toward the next slice of leave at exactly the same rate as the first 7 years did.
It also explains the odd-looking decimal. 0.8696 weeks a year isn’t a rounded approximation of “2 months.” It falls out of dividing 52.18 weeks (a calendar year, near enough) by 60. A small difference on paper, but across a long career it adds up to noticeably more than the older milestone-table states pay for the same length of service.
Casual and seasonal workers, and the 12-week gap
Victoria runs a separate continuity test for casual and seasonal employees, and it’s worth understanding on its own rather than folding into the general rules above. A gap of more than 12 weeks between engagements normally breaks continuity for a casual. Normally, though, isn’t always. The gap doesn’t break continuity if it’s covered by a prior written agreement, sits within the terms of the engagement itself, follows from seasonal factors (an orchard worker between harvests, say), or fits a regular-and-systematic pattern of re-engagement that a court or the regulator would recognise as ongoing employment in substance, even if the paperwork looks like a series of separate short contracts.
This matters more in Victoria than it might elsewhere, because there’s no earlier pro-rata safety net here. Miss the continuity test as a casual and the clock genuinely resets rather than just delaying a partial payment. It’s worth a business with a rotating casual pool checking this test specifically, not assuming casual hours simply don’t count toward long service leave at all (they do, once continuity is established).
The 52-week trap
The most common mistake we’d flag under this Act sits inside the continuity rules already mentioned above. Employers reasonably assume that granting someone extended unpaid leave, for travel, for a family matter, for whatever reason, simply pauses the long service leave clock without breaking it. Up to 52 weeks, that’s correct. Past 52 weeks, it isn’t automatic. Continuity only survives beyond that point under specific exceptions, such as a written agreement between the parties or an illness or injury covering the extra time. Grant 18 months of unpaid leave on a handshake, with nothing in writing, and there’s a real risk the service before that leave and the service after it get treated as two separate periods rather than one continuous 15-year run.
Get it in writing before the 52-week mark passes, or make sure there’s a genuine illness or injury basis on file. It’s a small piece of paperwork against a large amount of accrued entitlement.
Transfer of business, in plain terms
When a Victorian business is sold or its assets change hands, staff whose duties continue under the new owner keep their accrued service rather than starting over. The test the Act applies is whether the work itself carries across, not whether the paperwork calls it a sale, a restructure or an asset transfer. A café changing owners but keeping the same staff on the same tasks is squarely inside this rule. A business closing down entirely and a new, unrelated one opening in the same shopfront generally isn’t, even if a couple of the same faces end up working there again.
Who enforces it in Victoria
A dispute over a Victorian long service leave payment, whether the disagreement is over the date someone reached 7 years or whether a gap in employment broke continuity, goes to Wage Inspectorate Victoria. It administers the 2018 Act, handles complaints from workers who believe they haven’t been paid correctly, and can also confirm for an employer whether a particular set of dates and circumstances actually triggers the entitlement. That confirmation is worth getting in writing for anything borderline. This page and the calculator above are a starting point for working out roughly where someone stands, not a replacement for it.
Keeping the record straight
A 7-year entitlement with no exceptions is easy to explain to staff but easy to miss in the books if leave records live in three different spreadsheets. Delta Infotech’s business systems work keeps that record straight, and it’s priced plainly on the pricing page.