Portable long service leave for workers in the building and construction industry

Build your portable long service leave and take it with you

When you’re registered with ACT Leave, your portable long service leave benefits travel with you when you move between registered employers within the industry.

If you do relevant work in the construction industry, you should be registered for portable long service leave. If you are not sure if you are registered, contact us.

Eligible workers in the building and construction industry

In the building and construction scheme, workers are classified as either employees or contractors.

Mandatory – must be registered by the employer

2.35% of gross ordinary wages, paid by the employer

Accrued portable long service leave

Includes full-time, part-time and casual employees performing relevant work. Also includes employees on a visa that allows them to work in Australia

Apprentices

Mandatory – must be registered by the employer

Accrued portable long service leave

Employers must provide a copy of the training certificate when registering an employee as an apprentice

Contractors

Optional – can self-register

2.50% of ordinary remuneration or profit component, paid by the contractor

Contribution refund plus interest

Includes working directors, sole traders or individual partners in a partnership

Registering in the building and construction industry

As an employee or apprentice, your employer would normally register you when you start work with them.

Once registered, we’ll send correspondence with your registration number and instructions on accessing the client portal.

If you don’t think you’ve been registered and you have not received a letter from us with your registration details, contact us.

We’ll also send you an annual statement to ensure:

Contact us or use your registration details to log into the portal to:

Sole traders, individual partners in a partnership and working directors in building and construction

You can still benefit from the portable long service leave scheme if you’re a:

To do this, register with us as a ‘voluntary member’ to contribute towards a portable long service leave benefit. You can also backdate your service up to 1 year from the date you register.

When you claim, instead of taking leave, we’ll give you back the amount you paid in levies plus interest.

If the scheme fund investment made a return, you’ll receive interest of 75% of the rate of return (less any associated fees) or nil (if the fund did not make a return or made a loss). View the current interest rates.

Registering as a contractor

To register as a contractor, complete and submit the Contractor / Working Director Registration form.

Recording service as a contractor

If you register with us as a contractor, you must then lodge quarterly returns through the portal.

Each quarter, you’ll declare:

You’ll pay a levy of 2.50% on what you declare. Most contractors use a minimum daily rate of pay to calculate the gross ordinary wages.

If you have both employee and contractor service recorded, you’ll receive the sum of the worker part and your contractor part when you claim.

Accruing portable long service leave in the building and construction industry

If you were registered in the building and construction scheme in the ACT:

Your service recorded as an employee, apprentice and/or a contractor counts towards an entitlement.

For example, you would accumulate a total of 10 years of service in the scheme if you recorded:

See more information on entitlements and how to claim.

Deregistration

If you have had no service recorded with ACT Leave for 4 years, your portable long service leave account will be deregistered (closed).

We’ll let you know 3 to 6 months before this is due to happen.

To avoid deregistration, contact us:

Recording work in interstate building and construction industries

The building and construction scheme is portable Australia wide.

If you worked in the industry in another state or territory, they will have a record of your service in that area.

If you move interstate, you must check that you are registered with the portable long service leave scheme in the new state or territory.

When ready, make your claim where you last recorded service. We or the other state or territory provider will:

If you start working interstate, let us know so we can record your interstate service.

Please note: there are some differences in the type of work covered and the benefits offered under each interstate jurisdiction (including weekly pay rates). Any portion of interstate service included in a workers claim will be calculated and paid in accordance with the legislation and policies of the relevant interstate scheme.