A decade of rendering services to your employer has gone by, and one may feel the need to take a break and relax for a while.
When an employee thinks about taking a longer break, a number of questions and concerns come into mind.
- What kind of break would it be?
- How long is my break from work going to be?
- What would it be like to take a break?
- Will I get paid leaves or unpaid leaves?
- What things are there that I am entitled to as a long-term worker or employee under an employer or employing company?
long service leave entitlements NSW apply to the employees working in the NSW area – who work on a full-time, part-time or casual basis.
The main condition here is that if an employee has been working under an employer for ten years, he or she is entitled by the law to get two months of paid leave. This provision comes under the long service leave Act of 1955.
Who is Entitled to Long Service Leave
The entitlement also depends on the national employment standards (NES). This leave is dependent on an employee’s time and period in which he or she has rendered constant service to an employer. A continuous 10 years of service is what entitles an employee to this leave.
What Constitutes a ‘Continuous Service’?
Generally, the idea of continuous service is when a worker has worked under an employer continuously for a long period of ten years or a decade.
If the employee was absent sometimes during the span of ten years, it does not necessarily constitute a break in the period of continuous service. The various occasions of such absences include:
- When a worker has gone on a paid leave (in case of injury)
- When the worker or employee works solely for one of the employers
- If a worker stood down from his or her role and their employment status was reinstated after a while (it must be found that the worker in point was stood down from their duty as a means to avoid paying of long service leave entitlement
What if the Business Entity an Employee Works for is Transferred to a New Owner?
In case the employee has been transferred to a new owner after a business acquisition – then it does not affect the service span. In such a case, the tenure of service will remain the same and it will be transferred across.
Having to deal with the issue of long service leaves requires one to keep a keen eye on the number of service years one spends. An employee should be well aware if they have provided services for more than seven years.
It’s due diligence for an employee to seek assistance and advice from an employment lawyer to know what rights an employee has and what they are entitled to.
Key Takeaways
Here are the key takeaways:
- A continuous period of ten years of service entitles a worker to long service leaves in NSW (New South Whales)
- In NSW, these leaves are governed by the Long Service Leave Act 1955
- These leaves are available for all full-time, part-time, and casual workers
