MyLeave Overview

Most employees in Western Australia are covered by the State Long Service Leave Act 1958.

That Act gives workers an entitlement of 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.

The Construction Industry Portable Paid Long Service Leave Act 1985  mirrors these benefits but has the additional benefit of portability of service which allows workers to accumulate a long service leave entitlement by working in the industry for at least 7 years.

Instead of accumulating service with just one employer, workers who are registered in with MyLeave carry their accrued long service leave from employer to employer.

This is the portable nature of long service leave with MyLeave.

The responsibility for payment of the long service leave rests with MyLeave and not individual employers.

MyLeave keeps a record in a centralised register of the number of days each worker is engaged in the industry regardless of how many employers the worker works for. A worker may be credited with a maximum of 220 service days per year.

After 10 years of service in the industry (2,200 days of service) a registered worker is entitled to 8 2/3 weeks long service leave. MyLeave pays the worker for the long service leave using the worker’s ordinary pay.

After 7 years of service (1,540 service days) a worker may with the agreement of their employer take accrued long service leave (6 weeks after 7 years).

Also, after 7 years of service, workers who terminate their employment with an employer are entitled to a pro rata (proportionate) payment of accrued long service leave.

To meet the cost of long service leave benefits, each employer pays a contribution to MyLeave based on a percentage of their employees’ ‘ordinary pay’ . The rate of contribution is set by the Minister based on advice from the MyLeave Board and actuarial advice of the amount of funds needed to meet the liabilities of long service leave entitlements and the costs associated with administering the entitlements.

The liabilities of MyLeave include assuming without cost to employers the liability for service credits for apprentices.

In summary, workers in the construction industry who are registered with MyLeave gain their long service leave entitlements from service to the construction industry rather than service to individual employers.

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 list of prescribed awards was updated in November 2021.

The definition of construction industry can be found at in the Glossary section of Employer Information Page

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

The Act, and the Regulations prescribing the awards, were proclaimed on 19 December 1986.

In mid-December 1986 the Board decided that its administration would be ready for an early January commencement date and approved a start date of 6 January 1987.

A Ministerial order setting 6 January 1987 as the appointed day, the commencement date, was published in the Government Gazette dated 19 December 1986.

In 1977 the then Government established, under the chairmanship of the then Department of Labour and Industry, a committee to examine the need for a long service leave payment scheme for workers in the building industry

The Committee was tripartite in nature comprising representatives of the Master Builders Association, the Trades and Labour Council, the Confederation of Western Australian Industry and the Government. The Committee completed its task on 13 December 1978 and produced a draft proposal for an Act concerning long service leave payments in the building and construction industry.

While facilitating the discussion the then government made it clear that it did not have a commitment to introduce a scheme and legislation was not proceeded with at that time.

In 1983 further approaches were made to the Government by union representatives and on 27 February 1984 the Cabinet approved the establishment of a scheme of portability of long service leave entitlements within the Building and Construction Industry in Western Australia. That approval was one in principle and contained a direction that the operation of the scheme be the subject of tripartite consultation.

The Tripartite Labour Consultative Council subsequently resolved to form a sub committee comprised of representatives of the unions and the employer organisations in the construction industry to carry out this task. The subcommittee representation consisted of the Confederation of Western Australian Industry, the Master Builders Association, the Australian Federation of Construction Contractors and the range of unions involved in the construction industry.

On 20 September 1984, the results of the subcommittee deliberations were reported to the Tripartite Labour Consultative Council in the form of a proposed draft Bill which represented the collective views and substantial consensus of the subcommittee as to how the Scheme should operate.

On 10 October 1984, Cabinet received the Tripartite Council’s report and approved the preparation of legislation along the lines of the report and also approved the continued involvement and participation of industry representatives in the drafting process.

The smaller subcommittee formed to assist in this task consisted of senior industrial relations practitioners from the Confederation of Western Australian Industry, the Master Builders Association and the Builders Labourers Federation. The subcommittee was chaired and serviced by the then Office of Industrial Relations.

This task was completed on 30 July 1985 and a Bill representing the consensus reached by the industry representatives went before Parliament in the Spring Session in 1985.