Long service leave

[Gob]

IT HAS long been a dangling carrot for workers - the reward of long-service leave if they remain faithful to their employer for a decade.

But the idea of staying in one job for 10 years is outdated, so workers should be able to take their precious accumulated leave with them. That's the view of the state's peak union group, which is pushing for a national portable long-service leave scheme.

New research shows 1.7 million employees in NSW are locked out of long-service leave as they have shifted workplaces too frequently.

But employer groups strongly oppose the plan, saying that long-service leave should only reward loyal service to the one boss.

The Unions NSW secretary, Mark Lennon, said the system needed to be overhauled to account for the realities of the modern workforce.

''When long-service leave was introduced in 1955, most workers stuck with one employer for life,'' Mr Lennon said. ''Workers should not have to stay with the same employer for 10 years to earn a well-deserved break from work. Modernising long-service leave is a key way in which we can provide working people a better work/life balance.''

Data collected by Sydney University's Workplace Research Centre shows up to 20 per cent of the NSW workforce changes jobs each year. And about 550,000 have been in their job five to 10 years, meaning they're only eligible for pro-rata long-service leave if they are laid off or resign for pressing personal matters.

Mr Lennon said a portable scheme could operate in a similar way to programs available to workers in industries including construction, coalmining, contract cleaning and stevedoring. Workers can claim the leave, which is funded by employers, as long as they continue to work within that industry.

Under the contract cleaning industry scheme, employers pay 1.7 per cent of an employee's wage into a central fund. Workers can apply to the fund for 8.66 weeks leave after 10 years service - no matter how many bosses they've worked for.

Raylene Walker, who has worked in registered clubs for 28 years, has never been able to claim long-service leave because she worked for several employers. She has been at her present job at Cronulla Golf Club for three years, and worked at Ramsgate RSL for nine years before leaving to care of her sick baby.

''If a portable scheme had been available to me, the money would have helped … I had to spend eight weeks in hospital with our baby.''

Mr Lennon suggested the government introduce a portable leave scheme as part of the ''harmonisation'' of long-service leave laws.

A spokeswoman for the Workplace Relations Minister, Chris Evans, said the government was willing to work with states and territories to develop a national set of entitlements, but there were no plans for a portable scheme.

The Australian Federation of Employers and Industries chief, Garry Brack, said unions wanted workers to get ''compensated for leaving one employer and going to another as many times as they like''.

The NSW Business Chamber chief, Stephen Cartwright, said the proposal, which he called ''getting older leave'', would have a detrimental impact on wage costs.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/longserv ... z1YvLxqwqS

I should be getting my first tranche of LSL in the next year, Hen has 4 1/2 months accumulated.

[The Hen]

I've already had three months off at half pay. So that was six months in real time.

But I am one of those employees that has stayed with the one employer for life. Portability issues between departments is never an issue in the "service".