Thank you all.


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.