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Take two electrical contractors, one in Melbourne and one in Sydney, each with a qualified sparky on $1,800 a week and a first-year apprentice. The Melbourne business pays $631.80 a quarter in long service charges for the sparky and nothing for the apprentice. The Sydney business pays nothing at all to the scheme, but it has to register both workers, report every start and finish within seven days and file a return each July. Both are running portable long service leave, the construction schemes that let a worker build up long service across many employers. The two states just collect for it in completely different ways.
Here is who has to register in each state, what it costs, and the rules for the owner who works on the tools through their own Pty Ltd.
Why construction has its own long service scheme
Ordinary long service leave depends on staying with one employer for years, which rarely happens on the tools. So each state runs a portable scheme for construction. A central fund records your workers’ days whoever employs them, and pays the benefit when they qualify. Registration is a legal obligation for covered employers in both states, not an optional extra.
In New South Wales the scheme runs under the Building and Construction Industry Long Service Payments Act 1986, administered by the Long Service Corporation, a state government body. In Victoria it runs under the Construction Industry Long Service Leave Act 1997, administered by LeavePlus. LeavePlus, formerly called CoINVEST, is the trading name of CoINVEST Limited, the trustee under that Act. Both schemes cover electricians, plumbers and gasfitters, refrigeration and air-conditioning mechanics and most building trades.
Portable long service leave in NSW and Victoria, side by side
| NSW: Long Service Corporation | Victoria: LeavePlus | |
|---|---|---|
| Who registers | Employers of workers doing eligible construction work in NSW, including casuals and apprentices | Employers whose worker does covered work in Victoria for more than 5 days in a month, within 28 days after that month ends |
| How it is funded | A levy on the project: 0.25% of works costing $250,000 or more, including GST | A charge on payroll: 2.7% of each covered worker’s ordinary pay |
| Who pays | The holder of the building approval, or the person the work is for | The employer, quarterly, on invoice; never taken from wages |
| Apprentices | Registered and recorded; no employer cost | Registered and days reported; no charge for VRQA-certified apprentices |
| Reporting | Start and end notices within 7 days; annual return by 31 July | Quarterly return within 14 days of the quarter, nil returns included |
| Records kept | At least 6 years | At least 7 years |
| Worker’s benefit | 8.67 weeks’ pay after 10 years | 1.3 weeks per year of service, claimable after 7 years |
New South Wales: the client pays, you do the paperwork
A long service levy on the building work itself funds the NSW scheme. It is 0.25% of the total cost of works of $250,000 or more, including GST, and the payer settles it before work starts. The council or certifier won’t release the construction certificate until it is paid. The payer is whoever holds the approval, or the person the work is being done for, usually the client, developer or builder. On government work the contractor generally pays.
So a $400,000 job carries a $1,000 levy, paid once by the client or builder. An electrical subcontractor on that job pays nothing to the scheme, even with a crew on site. A job at $249,999 attracts no levy at all. The threshold applies to the whole job, not to your trade’s share of it.
What the NSW scheme does ask of you as an employer is paperwork. Registration is free. You record each worker within 7 days of starting and tell the Long Service Corporation within 7 days when one leaves. Every year you file a service return listing your workers as at 30 June, due by 31 July. You keep records of days worked, the type of work and the award or agreement for six years. Missing a notice or the return can cost up to $2,200 per offence. If you only use subcontractors and employ no workers, you don’t have to register as an employer.
Victoria: a charge on every covered worker’s pay
Victoria funds its scheme the other way round, through a charge on the employer. Once any worker does covered work for you for more than 5 days in a calendar month, you register within 28 days after that month ends. From then on, you lodge a return every quarter, within 14 days of the quarter ending, even when it is nil. The next one is due 14 January 2027 for October to December. LeavePlus then invoices you, payable in 14 days. A late return is a criminal offence, and interest runs on late payments.
The charge is 2.7% of each covered worker’s ordinary pay, a rate unchanged since July 2009. Ordinary pay includes shift loadings and site, tool and qualification allowances. It leaves out overtime, travel payments, leave loading and living-away allowances, and casuals count only their first 38 hours a week. With illustrative figures, a worker on $1,000 a week costs $351 a quarter, or $1,404 a year. The sparky on $1,800 a week costs $631.80 a quarter.
Apprentices are the exception. LeavePlus charges nothing for VRQA-certified apprentices, those in an apprenticeship approved by Victoria’s Registration and Qualifications Authority, for up to four years. You still register them and report their days each quarter, just without wages. Trainees are a different matter: LeavePlus charges for them like any other worker.
If you own the company and work on the tools
Many tradies run their business through a Pty Ltd and work on site themselves. Both states treat a working director as a worker in that situation. In NSW the company registers as an employer and records service for its workers, the director included.
In Victoria the worker-director rules go further. If you do covered work for more than 5 days in a month, the company registers itself and you as a worker, reports your days each quarter and pays 2.7% of your normal full-time ordinary pay. The two-thirds rule then applies, as it does to every worker: spend at least two-thirds of the quarter on covered work, and the company reports all of it. LeavePlus’s own example is a director with 47 covered days out of 65. The company reports all 65 days, so the charge is $333.45 instead of $241.11.
A director without a steady PAYG wage reports at a minimum rate set for the trade, and later claims are paid at that same rate. LeavePlus treats a director paid only through trust distributions as a working subcontractor instead. Sole traders and partnerships doing covered work in Victoria must register as working subcontractors too, although their contributions are optional.
What to register before the new year
If you employ anyone on Victorian sites and haven’t registered, that comes first. LeavePlus expects a backdated return for the time you were operating unregistered. In NSW, check that every worker and apprentice has a start notice and that your 31 July return listed everyone on your books at 30 June. On jobs of $250,000 or more, confirm with the builder or client that the levy has been paid: no certificate is released without it.
Queensland runs a third model. A levy of 0.35% funds long service on work of $150,000 or more, excluding GST, collected with two other levies at a combined 0.575%, and employers file an annual return by 31 July. Long service sits alongside the other on-costs of putting someone on: super paid with every pay run from mid-2026, workers compensation for each state you work in, and a White Card before anyone sets foot on site. For your own tax cash flow, see our guide to PAYG instalments.
DAYS ON SITE, PER WORKER
Both schemes run on days worked, so the quarterly return is only as good as your records.
In SendWork every job shows who was assigned to it and when, so the days each worker spent on site are already on record when the return is due.
