Long Service Leave for Casuals, State by State

Casual employees earn long service leave in every Australian state and territory. What trips people up is continuity: each law has its own answer to how long a gap between shifts can be before the clock restarts, and how irregular hours are turned into a weekly figure.

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The two questions that decide a casual's entitlement

Long service leave is a reward for continuous service with one employer. For permanent staff, continuity is rarely in doubt. For casuals, the working pattern itself creates gaps: a quiet month, a season off, a few weeks without shifts. So the first question is whether your service counts as continuous under your state's rules.

The second question is how much a week of leave is worth when your hours were never the same two weeks running. Each law has an averaging rule for that, and the windows differ a lot, from 12 months in Tasmania and the ACT to 3 years in SA to whole accrual periods in WA.

State-by-state comparison

JurisdictionContinuity for casualsHow hours are averaged
New South WalesCovered. Mixed full-time, part-time and casual service counts as one period if continuity holds; the detailed gap rules are in s 4 of the Act.Greater of the 12-month and 5-year average weekly hours.
VictoriaCovered. Gaps of up to 12 weeks between engagements (longer if agreed), seasonal absences and up to 104 weeks of parental leave do not break service.If hours changed in the last 104 weeks: greatest of the 52-week, 260-week and whole-of-employment averages.
QueenslandCovered, same 10-year period. Casual service back to 30 March 1994 counts; a gap of more than 3 months breaks continuity.Whole-of-service hours formula: total ordinary hours ÷ 52 × 8.6667 ÷ 10, at the loaded casual rate.
Western AustraliaCovered, same entitlements as permanent staff since 20 June 2022. Weeks with no shifts offered still count.Average over the relevant accrual period (first 10 years, then each 5-year block). Regular overtime hours count.
South AustraliaCovered through a series of contracts. Seasonal shutdowns do not break continuity; re-employment within 2 months preserves service.Average weekly hours over the 3 years before the leave.
TasmaniaDeemed continuous if regularly employed at least 32 hours in each consecutive 4-week period. Construction workers use TasBuild instead.No normal hours: average weekly hours over the previous 12 months.
Australian Capital TerritoryCovered where offered regular and systematic work with an expectation of continuing. Some industries use ACT Leave portable schemes.Average weekly hours over the 12 months before entitlement or cessation; 5-year salary averaging if you moved from full-time in the last 2 years.
Northern TerritoryCasuals are within the employee definition. Re-employment within 2 months preserves continuity.Average weekly hours worked in each year of service, applied year by year.

The rules that matter most

WA counts weeks without work. Since the 20 June 2022 amendments, a period where a WA employer simply didn't offer a casual any shifts still counts toward continuous employment. Before that change, those gaps could reset years of service.

Tasmania uses an hours test, not a gap test. A casual or part-timer regularly employed at least 32 hours in every consecutive 4-week period is treated as continuously employed. The question is whether you met the hours, not how long the breaks were.

Queensland counts hours, not weeks. Casual and part-time entitlements in Queensland are calculated from total ordinary hours over the whole period of service, divided by 52, multiplied by 8.6667 and divided by 10. The answer is a number of hours of leave, paid at the loaded casual rate.

The ACT protects a late drop in hours. If you moved from full-time to part-time or casual in the 2 years before your entitlement, your salary is averaged over the previous 5 years rather than using the reduced recent pay.

Portable schemes

Some casual-heavy industries sit outside the standard Acts. In Tasmania, construction workers are covered by the TasBuild portable scheme. In the ACT, construction, contract cleaning, community-sector and security workers accrue portable leave with ACT Leave. In the NT, construction workers under NT Build are outside the Act. Portable schemes follow the worker between employers in the industry, so the one-employer continuity rules above don't apply.

What to keep if you're a casual

The calculator models accrual from your service length and average weekly pay. It doesn't model gap-by-gap continuity, so if your casual history has long breaks, confirm your service period with your state's authority, linked from each state page.

Frequently asked questions

Do casual employees get long service leave in Australia?

Yes. Every state and territory law covers casuals, provided their service is continuous under that law. The difference between states is what counts as continuous and how the hours are averaged.

Is casual loading included in long service leave pay?

Yes, in all eight jurisdictions a casual loading is included in the rate long service leave is paid at.

I was casual, then went permanent. Does my casual time count?

Generally yes, as long as there was no break in continuity under your state's rules. NSW, for example, treats mixed casual, part-time and full-time service as one period.

How long a gap between casual shifts breaks my service?

It depends on the state: more than 3 months in Queensland, more than 12 weeks in Victoria (unless agreed), more than 2 months in SA and the NT. In WA, weeks where the employer offered no work still count. Tasmania uses a 32-hours-per-4-weeks test instead.

Related

Sources

Figures on this page come from the following primary sources. The date is when we last checked the page against the source.

Independent guide — not a government service, and not financial, legal or tax advice.