I believe that if you leave under 10 years unless it's because you are seriously ill, etc, then the employer is not obligated to pay pro rata. If you were made redundant or (like was my experience) your employer sells their business (so really same as redundancy), they are obliged to pay pro rata.
I guess unless you can prove that you had no choice other than to leave to work at home (as a mum) then they won't have to pay. Which REALLY stinks as you earn it. I am currently at nearly 8 years with my current employer and I need a change, but it seems alot to lose if I leave.
I guess it depends on the laws of the state. These are the Victorian laws:
An employee ceasing employment after at least seven years of continuous employment with one employer is entitled to be paid long service leave at the accrual rate of one week for each sixty weeks of continuous employment, regardless of the reason for termination of the employment.
Termination of Employment
On the day that employment ends an employee with at least seven years of continuous service with one employer is entitled to receive, in full, payment for any long service leave not taken;
This will apply whether the employee has resigned, has had their employment terminated by the employer, has been made redundant, or has died, and regardless of the number of staff the business employs.
I have found the following info, but I will contact the Union.
The Queensland legislation
Employees in Queensland who resign after seven years' service are entitled to a pro rata long service leave payment only if they resign for reasons of illness, incapacity, death or other pressing necessity. A payment should not be made to employees resigning for any other reason.
This entitlement exists in a number of other Australian jurisdictions. However, as in other Australian jurisdictions, the terms 'illness', 'incapacity', or 'domestic or other pressing necessity' are not defined and have been the subject of debate on a number of occasions.
General principles
The difficulty for employers is anticipating whether the circumstances of a particular employee will be considered by the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (the Commission) as falling within the set criteria. The general thrust of case law on this point is that employees ceasing work for reasons beyond their effective control are entitled to the benefit.
The words 'domestic or other pressing necessity' have been interpreted to encompass a broad range of scenarios, including:
•a pregnant employee leaving work to take on the responsibility of home duties;
•an employee forced to leave work to take care of a sick spouse, or take care of children;
•an employee changing jobs to lessen travel expenses when in a difficult financial situation;
•an employee leaving a job because working night shifts had become a strain on the employee's family relationships and repeated requests for a transfer to the day shift had not been granted; and
•an employee leaving employment because the employer was relocating and the employee would have been required to travel substantial distances to attend work each day.
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