Long service leave Dilemma..Help!

[addy76]

Hello!
greatly need help,am currently on Maternity Leave due to return to work on 20 may '10,
but want to resign as I need to stay home with child.
Started with company 24 may 2000, so I was hoping to obtain LS pay, but have been
informed that won't be so due to me currently being on ML.
Wondering if anyone knows where i could possibly obtain more info on LSL.I have
been in touch with State Authority & Fair Work Australia.

[Peg]

fair work australia should be able to give you the right information.

I have a feeling that you have to have worked for the full 10 years in order to qualify for LSL. If you've taken a year off, then you may need to wait until you've worked for another year.

[Pandora]

FRom what you have described they are correct.
Your maternity leave does not break your continuity of service, but the period which you are on maternity leave doesnt count towards your LSL entitlement period.

So if youve been there 8 years, take 12 months mat leave, this doesnt mean your years of service start again from zero when you go back to work, but the leave doesnt count as year 9 either.
Youd go back after the twelve months off and still have 2 years to go to get to your 10 years.

[Miss E]

I could be wrong, but I was under the understanding that once you've been with a company for 7 years you are entitled to your LSL upon resignation (like you would be any annual leave that you'd accrued). They don't have to let you take it as leave until you've been there for 10 years, but it does become a resignation entitlement after 7.

I'd been with my company for 9.5 years when I went on mat leave and they have let me take my LSL while on leave so that I can supplement my pay.

Definately something I would follow up because it doesn't sound right.

[Pandora]

oooooh you are resigning?
Sorry I missed that.

In Victoria at least the workplace act in 2006 changed the legistlation so that if you have been at the company for 7 years, they have to pay you pro rata your LSL entitlement. I think its federal legislation but i will check.
You'd still need to have worked there for 7 eyears exclusive of your mat leave.
If thats the case they are completely wrong and FWA will tell you/them so.

OK, NSW is different.
From the NSW Industrial Relations website:

Do I have any entitlements if I have worked less than ten years?


If you have completed at least five years (but less than ten years) of service, you will be entitled to a long service pro rata payment if you:

• resign as a result of illness, incapacity, domestic or other pressing necessity
• are dismissed for any reason except serious and wilful misconduct
• die (your next of kin may claim any long service leave entitlement still owing to you at time of death).

[addy76]

I was informed by State Authority to apply for "pressing under domestic necessity"
don't know if it will help though.
Thanks to all for providing some much needed answers

[Pandora]

That sounds about right. It will come down to whats defined as a domestic necessity. and who gets to make the determination.