Hi, my husband is due his long service leave around this time next year (if he takes it straight away). We are a family of five (three young boys) and would like to take the opportunity to do something ' different' if we can. As I will be taking unpaid leave we would probably have to work for part at of the time at least but happy to do anything. Would just love to hear ideas of what other people have done for some inspiration!
What Did You Do on Your Long Service Leave?
Clairegr on 12/03/2016 - 10:22
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Worked on OzBargain :)
I was working in my previous company for 10 years, and took the long service leave back in 2011. Started working full time on OzBargain on the first day, and resigned from my previous job at the end of LSL.
Geez mate…we all make mistakes. So, there's no chance they'll have you back?
Need to know, did Scotty upvote Marble250's comment?
hahaNope. You can check by clicking the 'votes' link underneath the comment.
But there's one downvote and I wonder who ;))
Well it wouldn't be Scotty, he seems like a Pro who can take a joke!….more like an apple-polishing, sychophant trying to curry favour with "the Boss"!
Hey, tar Scotty. You know, with all of the erudite and well-considered comments, I have made on OB….the only one , upon which, I have been upvoted is a comment on you. I guess it shows the interest taken and the value which posters place upon, the moderators on this site!….so this means you couldn't get your old job back???
Building houses and small villages in Fiji.
much respect to you sir
How much LSL does everyone get? We get 4 weeks after 10 years service, and then 4 more after every 5 years. Still got 7 years to go for me!
3 months at 10 years
3 months??? Maybe I need to change employer!!
Your LSL arrangement is the worst I've ever heard of in Australia.
You should probably check up on that - long service leave is a legislated right.
I'm assuming there's something that complicates your scenario - such as that you're part time, or have had time out from the workforce, or are under some other contractual arrangement that means you're not working a standard full time job. If you're a standard full time employee, I'm pretty sure you should be entitled to three months' leave at full pay after ten years.
Have a look at the Fair Work Ombudsman (link below) for more info, and check up on the laws in your state to make sure that you and your co-workers aren't getting the short end of the stick.
3 months at 10 years and a little more than a week for every year after that.
3 months at 5 years and another 3 months every 5 years.
4 WEEKS for 10 years service?
How much annual leave do you get?
4 weeks every year
Is it really that strange to only get 4 weeks LSL?
Is it really that strange to only get 4 weeks LSL?
Pretty strange.
Definitely not right that you don't get any at all.
@knick007: don't get any at all? I do, 4 weeks after 10 years. Is there a law that says you must get LSL?
But you also got 4 weeks each year, so basically, you are getting no more than you normally would.
@onetwothree: yes, yes there is a law that says you must get LSL. The exact rules depend on your state - here in the ACT, if your award or registered agreement doesn't say otherwise, you're entitled to 6.0667 weeks after 7 years.
Unlimited annual leave per year
Woohoo
You must have gotten LSL and annual leave mixed up.
Ask your work if you are unsureI must not be explaining myself properly as everyone seems confused.
I get 4 weeks of annual leave every year. After i have completed 10 years service they give us a bonus 4 weeks which is in addition to normal annual leave.
You're getting screwed.
In the majority of Australia you are entitled to 8.66 weeks of long service leave after 10 years. In SA it's 13 weeks. ACT/TAS are less/more based on longer/shorter durations (5y and 15y). This is in addition to your regular annual leave.
No, we understand, 4 weeks LSL doesnt sound right.
Im saying you must have gotten the 4 from the annual leave.
Maybe you get 4 MONTHS LSL? that would be sweet…
I would speak to your employer about this as your LSL makes up part of the NES - Read more about this topic here: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/how-we-will-help/templates-and-g…
The standard entitlement in AU is - 8.67 weeks after 10 years
For SA/VIC and some industries (e.g. aged care) - 13 weeks after 10 years
For some very specialised industries such as nurses / police / lucky people - 13 weeks+ after 7 yearsThat you claim to be receiving less than this can only mean:
- You are on a contract that predates the conditions in the above link
- Your employee is in breach of the NES@Baa: OK after double checking my LSL entitlements and asking some of my colleagues and checking the legislation I realised i was the only one who had 4 weeks. I took it up with HR who said it must've been an error and they were unsure how it happened. They fixed it up straight away so now my contract says I get 2 months LSL after 10 years service.
Thanks for everyone's help, i may never have noticed the mistake!
As per the above, most employees fall into one of the two:
The standard entitlement in AU is - 8.67 weeks after 10 years
For SA/VIC and some industries (e.g. aged care) - 13 weeks after 10 yearsWould say you are getting 8.67 after 10.
Yeah baby
My company gives 3 months LSL after 7 years, which after reading this I'm beginning to think is quite generous…
Woo hoo
It depends on which state you're in, in VIC it's 13 weeks for 15 years and you can take it from 10 years on wards.
Took the family to the United States
Was made redundant 3 weeks before I could take it - they laughed at me when I brought it up…never got it paid out.
I thought companies need to pay out LSL pro rata if they fire an employee that work for 5+ years?
I was 3 weeks short of the 7 year mark, where they would've had to pay me pro rata. They had been paying me less than award wages for 6 years and when I asked to be paid at least minimum wage for the position I was in, they came back and said we've made you redundant instead.
They would've paid me back pay and kept me on, if I didn't make them back pay everyone else that they were cheating - cost them over $600K.
So I fought them and got everyones back pay but couldn't get LSL - 'cuase at the end of the day I wasn't entitled to it.
Fair work ombudsman is the way to go, please let me know if you are working in 7-Eleven?
@LoveBargain15: Unfortunately this is not uncommon, especially when companies are planning redundancies.
I don't believe the FWO would have much say on the issue of the payout of LSL - as the iratepirate mentions they were not entitled to it at the time of redundancy.
@Baa:
"They had been paying me less than award wages for 6 years"
I am referring to this and also you can put the payout of LSL together with 6 years of under paid wages back, which I think it will be more then the LSL payout,also if this is for the whole company with over $600K i am sure FWO will be interest on this company.
@LoveBargain15: Ah ok, I just skipped that part because the OP mentioned the backpay has been sorted.
Most large organisations would pay off a pro-rata as a goodwill gesture to the employee. I've seen it happen on a number of occasions. However, it seems like the ex-employer doesn't really give a damn about any of that (severely underpaying; asking wrongdoings to be covered up etc).
These sorta places really need to be shafted royally.
Depends on the award or or policy or whatever legal document you are covered under.
I think it is 7 years where i work - large company.
Yep generally it's paid out after 7 years of service if you leave for whatever reason. And you can take it after 10 years of service. Also generally government employees can take LSL after 7 years of service.
combined it with annual leave and unpaid leave. Went "backpacking" for 8 months with husband. Accommodation ranged from free camping and borrowing relatives bed to luxury spa cabins in Canada. Cost a lot, but it was awesome.
it was odd coming home and having so much choice about what to wear, instead of just choosing whatever was cleanest.
How old are the kids? I would seriously think about distance education and go travel around Australia. It's a huge place, very diverse. Heading to the "outback" proper is an amazing experience.
They will be 6, 4, and 18 months. Yes I agree, lots to see in our backyard!
What's long service leave ?
It's when you spend a decade as an employee/slave who is loyal to (or brainwashed by) a single master, and then you can be allowed three months of freedom. Then you can repeat the process for the remaining decades of your time upon this earth.
I'm about 2 and half years away and starting to think seriously about what the family and I are going to do.
We're considering a round-Australia trip but friends of ours headed off to Vietnam. They put the kids in international school (they raved about good it was for their kids), rented a massive place by the beach for peanuts and took it really easy…
The first time I took 6 months on half pay. We went to Europe for a couple of months and drove around in a leased Peugeot. Spent the rest of the time relaxing and not working.
The second time I took 6 weeks and we went to USA, visited a few cities and cruised the Panama Canal.
Do something you wouldn't be able to do normally. We had three kids and took a caravan trip from Victoria right up the Eastern Coast past Cairns for three months. We didn't visit every big town on the way up - we visited the ones we missed on the way back. I didn't have to work as we had enough cash but I did notice a number of people were doing the same thing as us and they would stop in a place for a couple of weeks and Dad or Mum would work before moving on. It was wonderful experience for all of us.
What type of work did they do?
Cafes or restaurants?There were quite a few tradies and I think they often advertised ahead in the papers of the towns near where they were going. Apparently people would often hire them for a particular job. A few labourers who could often pick up a week's worth with another tradie. Not really sure what the others did.
By the way, on our trip up the Eastern Coast we had schoolwork for the kids to do provided by their school. We found that they did that and did a whole lot more as we got them to think about what they were seeing and write something about it. I think they came back far better off educationally than the kids that stayed at school.
Love that idea, thanks! We live in WA though so could go up the WA coast. We have a caravan already too so would be good to go.
I went round Australia in 1980 by myself. Up the East Coast across the top and down the WA coast. There are some long and lonely patches on the WA coast. Up the top end you have Broome and a few good spots to see and there are a few interesting places to see on the way down but not a lot to do for kids. There were times when I was driving for two days without too much to see compared to say the East coast where the towns and tourist places were only hours apart in many cases. The bottom end of WA was OK.
Spent over thirty four years in corrections Victoria tok all of my long service leave.
However I left behind nearly(2 years) sick leave got thanks from corrections
they were always up themselves. Loyalty was never shown by this mob.Before you left you should have taken a couple of days off each week :D
I worked
Mine came up in December last year. Just continuing to let it accrue. Hopefully get retrenched in about 3 - 5 years and get it paid out and taxed concessionally.
I've got long service leave and holidays from about 5 years backed up. I have accumulated so much leave that recently my employer forced me to take 2 weeks off, and has strongly hinted I will need to continue to take regular leave for the rest of the financial year. In theory, I could go away on holidays for 6 months straight.
Its gotten a bit out of hand, and a really weird feeling. I should be delighted to take time off, but when you literally can plan no nice holidays due to financial pressure, it feels like a bit of a waste.
Ask your employer if they can pay a week out here and there and keep working…
Surely the ato/government wont notice that.
I'm at my current place of work 11 years. I don't have any idea when I'll take it. My wife is about to try to re-enter the workforce, but as a casual. I'm about to do a very short stint filling in for my boss. I need to save up enough money to do something with it other than sit on my backside at home for 2 months. And of course we have projects going in over the next 2 years and every chance they're going to try to extend our shifts to go overnight. I have no idea what to do but I feel like if I don't act soon I'll just be paid out at best. It's complicated.
I travelled around the world - India, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain, US. Spent the longest time in India and Spain (a month in each), and I think they were the cheapest. Was an amazing trip, although I was sick of youth hostels and budget accommodation by the end of it!
I extended my maternity leave with the first lot letting me stay at home longer with my kids and then went on a 6 week USA tour with the family with the second lot. My 3rd lot I hope to go to Europe with my sons for the youngest high school graduation.
Nothing so far.
Got 8 weeks sitting up my sleeve for whenever I need a long, long vacation.
Centrelink must treat you very well.
my wife is about to have a baby on her 10yr….so she will get paid during maternity leave. win win!
I added mine on to my maternity leave, then took it at half pay (so effectively took twice as long) and returned to uni to do a full time Graduate Certificate online, off campus, often with the baby on my knee.
After study I returned to my old job briefly, then found a new job paying considerably more. It was one of the best things I've done.Set yourself up for 3 months in a developing country away from the main congested cities. Maybe a small town that has decent sanitation. Can rent a decent 3 bedroom place with a nanny to help with the kids. Maybe contact a local school and see if they need any volunteers to help and can have your kids mix with the locals.
Not easy to organise, but very fun for the kiddies to learn new experiences from different cultures.
I was enrolled in school in Nairobi for 8 weeks when i was 4 years old.
A little history… courtesy of Wikipedia
Long service leave is an additional employee vacation payable after long periods of service with an employer in Australia and New Zealand. Long service leave was introduced in Australia in the 1860s. The idea was to allow civil servants the opportunity to sail home to England after 10 years’ service in ‘the colonies’. It was 13 weeks for every ten years of service, composed of five weeks to sail back to England, three weeks of leave and five weeks to sail back.
It remains one of the great entitlements for working Australians and one that is peculiar to the Australian labour market. The rules governing long service leave entitlements vary for different employees depending on their circumstances and their jurisdiction. Currently, annual leave entitlements are covered by the state or territory law in which the employee is employed.
Interesting.
i didnt know that, but am now glad that you explained that! hopefully wiki can be trusted with this information, cos thats cool.
Incidently, i want to take mine in a couple of years time at half pay, fly to the med, buy a yacht and sail it home… so similar thing i guess?
:)
If only its possible to get full time work these days , the company i work for are doing full time to casual conversions
If I had LSL (I don't as I work for myself), I would take the kids and family and travel and live in a third world country for 3-4 months helping out at some sort of charity.
got retrenched, and it was prorated paid out… if dont get a new job in 3/4 weeks im off to wtf knows where
Never worked more than 2 years at one place.
Never will have LSL :(On the flip side, my pay has gone up almost 80% in the last 10 years…
I would do the great east australian drive. Not sure where you are located but basically you circle through Ayers rock, Cairns, brisbane, sydney, melbourne, adelaide. Plan ahead and book hotels/motels/camps etc.
A colleague of mine did this with his two teenage boys over three weeks. He says it was the best thing he has ever done and regretted not taking the mrs as it wasn't as rough/uncomfortable as he imagined it to be.
Take the time to have a coffee or beer with each of your facebook friends. Travel to meet them wherever they are. You should have some good stories by the end of it.
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Go on holiday.