Delivering on Our Targets

Leading the way with our national AusLeave peers

For the second consecutive year, the Authority hosted the national AusLeave conference. AusLeave provides an opportunity for the leaders of Australia’s nine state and territory-based portable long service authorities to discuss their joint goals for workers in various industries.

More than two million workers in industries ranging from building and construction, community services, contract cleaning and security are covered by Australia’s portable long service leave schemes.

The schemes, which fall under the banner of AusLeave, collectively manage more than $5 billion dollars held for the benefit of workers in the covered industries.

The AusLeave conference, which brought together the Chairs and Chief Executive Officers, was held on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 of March 2025.

The Authority also hosted online sessions involving various business units including finance, legal, communications and information technology.

The following state and territory authorities attended the conference:

• ACT Leave – Australian Capital Territory’s construction, contract cleaning, community services, security and services industries
• LeavePlus – Victoria’s construction industry
• Long Service Corporation - New South Wales construction and contract cleaning industries
• MyLeave – Western Australia’s construction industry
• NT Build – Northern Territory’s construction industry
• Portable Long Service Authority – Victoria’s community services, contract cleaning and security industries
• SA Portable Long Service Leave – South Australia’s construction and community services industries
• TasBuild – Tasmania’s construction industry
• QLeave – Queensland's building and construction, contract cleaning and community services industries

Identify and engage key stakeholders

Increasing stakeholder awareness and understanding of the Scheme, as well as employer compliance are central themes in the 2023-26 Corporate Plan. In 2024-25, the Authority met its performance measure for engagement activities and publication of insights on covered sectors. Communications and engagement are vital to the continued growth of the Scheme.

Our 2024-25 activities were informed by user and market research and insights drawn from a strategic project focusing on innovative analysis and methods to ensure covered employers are aware of and complying with their obligations under the Scheme, including through collaboration with government and peak bodies, utilisation of publicly available material and direct proactive engagement with potential employers.

The Authority participated in two major community services expos in Melbourne and Geelong. These expos focused on the disability sector, with more than 6,700 people attending. The Authority also engaged with government agencies, disability service providers and consumers. Our work continued to identify employers who should be registered with the Scheme and the under-registration of workers.

By hosting two national AusLeave conferences, the Authority reinforced its leadership position in the portable long service sector. Chairs and senior executives from the nine portable long service leave authorities attended to network and exchange information on operations and emerging industry developments.

In addition to expos and conferences, the Authority presented information on the Scheme at Victorian Law Week, held an event for our 5-year anniversary in Bendigo which was attended by local employers and delivered monthly online training sessions for employers on quarterly returns.

The Authority also engaged directly with employers and peak bodies to assist in the streamlining of our processes. One example is the simplified reporting of hours and ordinary pay in quarterly returns. This simplification was well-received by employers and peak bodies and enabled us to strengthen relationships with these external stakeholders.

Identifying under-registered employers and workers

The Authority is exploring innovative ways to ensure covered employers are aware of and complying with their obligations under the Scheme.

In one instance, we attended a promotional event for employers in the community services sector and met directly with community services employers and workers. After the event, we sent correspondence to employers who were not registered and appeared potentially covered by the Scheme.

We also recognise that, in order to ensure all employers and their workers are registered, there is a role for the Authority to play in ensuring employers and workers understand the Scheme’s coverage. To support this, we increased our educational guidance to the sectors, through the Authority's eNewsletter and the website, and in direct engagement with peak bodies. This has included, for example, guidance on coverage of security trainers, NDIS providers and room attendants. This communication and education activity will grow further in the next financial year.

One business engaged with in this way was a community services employer with over 420 workers performing covered work. This employer now understands their obligation, has applied for registration and is in the process of filing backdated quarterly returns and paying its levies. Many of the employer’s workers were not previously registered for the Scheme and will now be able to accrue portable long service entitlements.

We continue to engage with unregistered potential employers to ensure they understand their obligations under the Scheme so that all covered workers can access the portable long service benefits they are entitled to.

Ensuring more workers now know their rights

The Authority delivered a range of communication and engagement projects and activities during the 2024-25 financial year to educate workers about their rights under the Scheme.

The Authority’s website content was refreshed in October 2024 and a new site went live in March 2025. The new design saw content arranged in worker and employer streams, with the new menu structure and content significantly improving the user experience. Enhancements targeting workers also included a self-registration process and guidance materials explaining this process. An SMS campaign also targeted workers encouraging them to ensure contact details were up to date to enable them to receive the benefits they are entitled to.

A broad awareness campaign for workers was launched in February 2025. The message was: “If you work in community services, contract cleaning or the security industry, you may be eligible for portable long service leave. Find out if you are eligible by going to the PLSA website.”

The worker awareness campaign was followed by an employer obligation campaign in June 2025, calling on covered employers to register themselves and their workers with the Authority.

There was a focus on culturally and linguistically diverse audiences in both campaigns, with communications material translated into ten languages for social media and multicultural publications. The translations were simplified and traditional Chinese, Sinhalese, Arabic, Korean, Italian, Vietnamese, Hindi, Punjabi and Spanish.

High value stakeholders including unions, employers and peak organisations were sent a ‘campaign stakeholder kit’ to give them the opportunity to distribute our campaign assets and messaging through their networks to workers covered by the Scheme.

Celebrating five years with local employers at Galkangu Bendigo GovHub

July 2024 marked the fifth year of operation of the Authority. To acknowledge this milestone, an event was held in August 2024 at our head office, located at Galkangu Bendigo GovHub.

The event was opened by Board Chair Julius Roe, and attended by the Honourable Maree Edwards, Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Assembly and the Member for Bendigo West. Also in attendance were representatives from the Bendigo Cleaning Company, central and northern Victoria disability services provider, Lifely and training provider ICAN Learn, a division of the Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network. These organisations are all local Bendigo employers registered with the Scheme.

Ms Edwards thanked the Authority and staff for their commitment to providing a better financial outcome for workers in the community services, contract cleaning and security industries who before the Scheme commenced in July 2019, often missed out on long service due to the tenuous nature of their jobs. Chief Executive Officer and Registrar Joseph Yeung concluded the event by highlighting that it was an honour to host the event and a great opportunity to meet and connect with local employers who show a vested interest in the future of their workforce by participating in the Scheme.

Implementing our Compliance and Enforcement Framework

* Based on the last quarter
# Comprising 3 default judgements in the Magistrate's Court of Victoria and 7 winding up applications in the Supreme Court of Victoria for employers who had failed to pay their levies.

The Authority is on track implementing our compliance and enforcement framework. This focused strategic approach has seen the program evolve from an education-based to an intelligenceled stronger compliance approach based on risk.

To support this work there has been a significant investment in growth recruitment with the establishment of two new teams: Employer Regulation and Investigations. With the new teams onboarded, focus shifted to operationalising the compliance and enforcement framework. These teams conduct the Authority's field activity following advanced government investigation techniques and procedures. Some of the work performed by the team during the year included a co-ordinated operation targeting unregistered employers in the disability sector in Geelong.

The Authority’s civil debt recovery work in the Magistrates Court of Victoria and Supreme Court of Victoria targets employers who fail to pay their levies.

In 2024-25, a community services employer with over 180 workers who failed to pay levies over an extended period was wound up in insolvency and placed into liquidation.

Another example includes a security and cleaning company, employing nearly 200 mostly casual workers, who after ceasing complying with its levy and quarterly return obligations, the Authority filed a winding up application, which led to the employer making payment in full and the Authority recovering all outstanding amounts as well as legal costs. This employer is now up to date on its outstanding quarterly returns, ensuring workers have correctly recorded service hours and accurate portable long service leave entitlements.

Lastly, the Authority is on track to meet the first target to continue to reduce the number of days to issue invoices towards the 60-day target by 2026. This has been supported by further resourcing the team and consultation with employer peak bodies which led us to simplify the reporting of hours and ordinary pay in quarterly returns to reduce the reporting impost on employers.

Targeting strategic enforcement in Geelong

Recognising the critical role of compliance in preserving the integrity of the Scheme, the Authority launched a targeted strategy to identify non-compliant employers within the disability services sector.

In its first coordinated education and compliance initiative, the Authority focused on disability service providers based in Geelong. The operation leveraged a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing on expertise from the Customer Service, Communications, Legal, Project Management and Investigations teams.

Geelong, home to the National Disability Insurance Agency headquarters, has a high concentration of disability providers. The pilot was designed to deepen the Authority’s understanding of the size and scope of the disability sector, which falls under the broader category of community services.

There were 3 phases of the pilot:

1. Desktop identification of potentially non-compliant employers

2. Stakeholder engagement via participation in the 2025 Geelong Disability Expo

3. Fieldwork conducted across the Geelong region.

The desktop review was undertaken as part of our program of work to identify covered employers who have not registered with the Authority and to conduct direct outreach with those employers to facilitate their registration.

At the expo, Authority staff interacted with over 100 workers and employers, with approximately 1,500 people attending the two-day event. The Authority also engaged in follow up outreach with employers who had sought further information regarding their obligations and those that were identified as not registered with the Scheme.

After the expo, our newly established Investigations team conducted a two-day blitz in the Geelong central business district to identify unregistered disability providers. This fieldwork was a significant step in the Authority’s evolving investigations and enforcement function. Arising out of the outreach and engagement with employers and the fieldwork, the Authority is now investigating a number of employers for non-compliance with their obligations.

Strategic communication activities supported the pilot, with targeted media releases distributed through local Geelong outlets and coordinated social media engagement.

Insights gained from the pilot will lay the foundation for future enforcement strategies.

Evolve baseline infrastructure to better practice systems and processes across the Scheme