MyLeave Employer Information Page

Every employer, as defined in the Construction Industry Portable Paid Long Service Leave Act 1985, must register with MyLeave.

To register, complete and submit an Employer Registration Form(opens new window)

Once your application is approved, you will provided with a registration certificate and registration number.

If you need to back-date service for your first return, this may be provided as a manual return (no online option), subsequent returns will be sent by email and will contain a password which will change each quarterly return cycle.

Please use your MyLeave Portal for your return submissions.

Passwords for your portal will change each quarter, you can access your portal by clicking the button below. 

Employer Login

All employers registered with the Scheme are required to complete and submit a Quarterly Return showing the information required to be provided on the Return form.

Registration is compulsory by law. Failure to register and pay contributions can result in fines and surcharges being applied to amounts owed.

The Return forms are sent to all employers at the end of each quarter and must be completed and submitted with payment within 15 days after the end of each period.

Surcharges may apply for failure to comply with this requirement.

Please read the other sections of this web page for further information.

How to submit a return

The Returns are distributed at the end of each quarter and are required to be submitted by the 15^th of the following month.

Employers are encouraged to complete the Return online through the Employer Login.

Please note that there are two methods to lodge Returns online:

• Direct entry into the Online Employer Return Form
• Upload of spreadsheet and then submission via the Online Employer Return Form

Training is available from MyLeave’s Compliance and Advisory team by arrangement.

Please contact us for further information.

Wage Rates

The wage rate used to calculate Returns and to pay an employee’s long service leave is the employees’ “ordinary rate of pay”.

Ordinary Pay

When preparing your quarterly Returns, the ordinary pay for reportable service days will vary depending on if the worker is entitled to paid leave or not.

For workers entitled to paid leave, ordinary pay means the rate of pay (disregarding any leave loading) to which the person is entitled for leave (other than long service leave) to which the person is entitled.

The ordinary pay reportable for your employees who are entitled to paid annual leave under their terms of employment (including contracts of employment) should be:

• Their daily rate of pay while on paid annual leave (inclusive of allowances that are paid while on annual leave and excluding leave loading) multiplied by;
• The number of days of service you are reporting for them. 

Please note that ordinary pay does not include annual leave loading but does include other amounts such as rental allowance, utilities allowance, living away from home allowance etc. – if these allowances are due to a worker when on paid leave.

If a worker is not entitled to paid leave (other than long service leave), the ordinary pay of the person is the rate of pay to which the person is entitled for ordinary hours of work. For instance, the ordinary rate for casuals will include casual loading, other applicable allowances, and may include weekend work.

Ordinary pay and reportable service days must be calculated in calendar years and not financial years as the levy may differ from 1 January of each year.

If you are unsure of the rate to be used MyLeave can offer assistance in determining the appropriate pay rate to use. Please contact  us for assistance.

Contribution Rate

To view the current Contribution Rate, please visit the 2024 Contribution Rate announcement. 

Note that the ordinary rate of pay is not the award rate. See ‘Wage Rates’ above for more detail.

Working Directors are a special category of employee and the definition of “Ordinary Rate of Pay” creates complexities regarding the treatment of Working Directors.

The contribution rate is based on the ‘ordinary rate of pay’ paid to an employee for ordinary hours of work.

For Working Directors, the ‘ordinary rate of pay’ is the rate of pay being received by Directors as employees of their firm. This would be the amount that they receive as wages on a defined, regular, at least monthly basis, that they pay tax on a Pay As You Go (PAYG) basis, have wage records for (pay slips), can present an ATO payment summary at the end of each financial year, and evidence regular payment of wages from the business bank account into their personal bank account.

One off adjustments during or at the end of the financial year are not included, nor can they be averaged out over the year.

Working Directors who do not receive a regular wage cannot then meet these requirements and their status and eligibility with MyLeave is in doubt.

Working Directors who are in this situation or are unsure of these arrangements should contact MyLeave to discuss the matter.

Quarterly Returns are only to record service days when Working Directors are on site and working in a prescribed classification.

What happens if an employee has a break from or leaves the Construction Industry?

Employees may have breaks from the industry of up to two years in the first 5 years of service and up to 4 years after that without breaking continuous service and without losing any accrued service days. Naturally these breaks do not count towards their entitlement.

If an employee breaks their continuous service before reaching a minimum of 7 years service (1540 service days) then all the service accrued to date is extinguished. No payment can be made to an employee who has accumulated less than 7 years service regardless of the circumstances. MyLeave has no discretion in the matter.

What happens to contributions paid in for an employee who does not get an entitlement?

Portable long service leave does not operate the same as superannuation. Employees accumulate days of service towards an entitlement, not an accumulation of money. Where an employee leaves the construction industry before achieving an entitlement of at least 1,540 service days (equivalent to 7 years of service), any service days accrued are extinguished.

The contribution rate used for calculating contributions to MyLeave is determined by the Minister on advice from the MyLeave Board and report from an Actuary.

The Actuary’s calculation of the contribution rate, needed to meet the cost of workers entitlements, takes into account any surpluses generated due to workers not obtaining an entitlement as well as investment returns. The contribution rate is assessed annually.

Employer Recovery Claim

Where an employer has paid out a long service leave entitlement to a worker under another Act or under an industrial instrument; and the employer has paid contributions on behalf of that worker to MyLeave, the employer is entitled to recover Board an amount that is proportionate to the ordinary pay that would have been payable to that person from MyLeave.

How to claim

Download the Claim by Employer for Recovery of Long Service Leave Entitlements Form. (opens new window tab)    

Powers of Inspectors

Inspectors employed by MyLeave have the power to enter the premises of an employer at any reasonable time of the day to inspect any books, records or documents for any of the purposes of the Act and to take extracts or copies of those records.

Inspectors will produce a certificate of appointment signed by the Chief Executive Officer identifying their appointment as an Inspector.

Records and Offences

Employers are required to keep records of every employee’s name and address, date of birth, registration number, starting and finishing dates and the number of days on site. These records must be retained for a period of not less than seven years.

Offences may apply for obstructing a MyLeave Inspector or failing to comply with any section of the Act.

Worker Entitlements

Workers are entitled to 8 ²/₃ weeks leave after 10 years continuous employment with the one employer whilst employed, with a pro rata entitlement after 7 years with the one employer upon termination of service.  If a worker ceases employment with an employer before 7 years is served, then the worker is not entitled to any accrued long service leave.

To be eligible to be registered with MyLeave a worker must satisfy two criteria.  The worker must be:

1. employed in classification of work referred to in a prescribed award relating to the construction industry, and
2. be working on site in the construction industry.

For full list of prescribed awards please click the following link Prescribed Awards. 

The definition of construction industry can be found below in the Glossary.

Workers receive 1 year of service for each 220 days worked in the construction industry.  The maximum number of days that can be allocated in any year to an employee is 220.

After 10 years of service (2,200 service days) in the construction industry, regardless of the number of employers the worker has worked for, workers are entitled to 8 ²/₃ weeks of leave and, for each 5 years after that, 4 ¹/₃ weeks. Leave may not be taken in more than 3 periods, or periods of less than 1 week.

Pro Rata (Proportionate) Entitlements

After accumulating a minimum of 1,540 days (equivalent to 7 years) of service an employee may, with the permission of their employer, take leave (6 weeks on reaching 1,540 service days) on a pro rata basis. Or on termination of employment, claim a lump sum payment.

Where an employee who has completed at least 1,540 days (equivalent to 7 years) of service dies, a pro rata payment will be paid to the dependent spouse of the employee or to the employee’s estate.

Rate of Pay for Leave Entitlement

The worker’s payment for the period of long service leave will be paid by MyLeave and calculated using the worker’s ordinary rate of pay averaged over the last 220 days of service in the construction industry.

Worker accumulating continuous service in more than one capacity

A worker registered with MyLeave may continue to accrue long service leave entitlements under the provisions of the State Long Service Leave Act 1958 or other industrial instrument relating to long service leave which applies to Western Australian employees. Due to this, an employer in some cases may become liable to pay long service leave entitlements to a worker.

The employer can then claim a recovery from MyLeave for that worker. This recovery is based on the average of the worker’s ordinary rate of pay for the last 220 service days in the industry as submitted by the employer.

Apprentices

Apprentices receive credits for their apprenticeship period without cost to employers. This benefit supports and encourages the apprenticeship scheme within the construction industry.

For full list of MyLeave's Employer FAQ please click the link below.

Employer FAQ 

The definition of “employee” in the Construction Industry Portable Paid Long Service Leave Act 1985 (the Act) uses the term “contract of service” as follows:-

“employee means a person who is employed under a contract of service in a classification of work referred to in a prescribed industrial instrument relating to the construction industry that is a prescribed classification”; or “an apprentice”.

For full definition see the Subcontractor or Employee

Workers performing the role of “Supervisor” are only eligible if they are principally employed to perform work that aligns with those of a Foreman under clause 5.1 of the Foreman (Building Trades) Award 1991 or perform work within Schedule A of the Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020.

Eligibility is assessed on the substantial duties of the Worker aligning with a classification of work under a Prescribed Award, not the Workers job title. 

Supervisors whose time is predominantly spent on-site overseeing construction work and who's duties align to that of a Foreman would usually be eligible for MyLeave. 

Supervisors whose time is predominantly spent off-site and who's duties more align to that of a Manager or Project Manager would not usually be eligible for MyLeave. 

Please read our Supervisor FAQ's page for further information. 

Definitions of Employer, Construction Industry, Reportable Service of Days and Interstate Work can be found on the Definitions page.