Under the terms of the current enterprise agreements governing your employment in the public services, your long service leave matures after fifteen years of continuous service. The leave entitlement at fifteen years is for six months of paid leave and it may now be taken on a pro-rata basis after seven years of continuous employment. After fifteen years of continuous service, your long service leave will grow at the rate of two months for every five additional years of continuous service.

Your entitlement needs to be managed carefully throughout your career as a public health practitioner, as there are pitfalls in the system that can see a long-nurtured accrual rendered null and void by easily made mistakes.

Continuity of service

Your long service leave entitlement will grow for as long as you maintain your continuity of service. This means that you need to remain actively employed in the public health service with no absence from employment greater than five weeks. In the case of a casually employed or internal locum doctor, this means that you need to ensure your zero-hours contract results in regular work. Paid leave periods are not an absence from employment.

If you are on long unpaid parental leave, then your continuity of service is not broken but the time does not count towards your long service leave.

Furthermore, if you arrived in the Victorian from an interstate public health service after 30 November 2008, then your service with the interstate (or territory) public health service is recognised as part of your continuous service in Victoria.
 

Certificates of service

The most common problem encountered in proving entitlement to long service leave is a lack of certificates from a member’s time working as a junior doctor, especially where they have moved between employers on an annual basis. The certificate of service is the most compelling piece of evidence for proving that you have the necessary continuity, but health services do not always provide them automatically when your contract with them finishes. Always make sure that you leave an employment relationship with the certificate of service.
 

Continuity of service and specialist training

If you are employed by a health service not covered by one of our agreements, but you were employed there as part of your accredited specialist training, this is recognised as part of your continuity of service. Doctors in this situation must ensure that the gap between this employment and their employment in an Australian public health service is not greater than two months.
 

Payment on termination

According to the rules of the EBAs, a health service is supposed to pay out any available long service leave when your contract with them terminates. If you wish to transfer your entitlement to a subsequent public health service employer, please make sure that you include the instructions in writing with your notice of termination or before your contract ends. If you have not found a new employer when your contract ends, then the payroll office can hold the entitlement for you for five weeks or until they are notified that you have a new employer. If they do not receive the notice after five weeks then they will pay out your entitlement.

If the payroll office receives no instructions regarding your entitlement then they may pay it out, per the rules, and the leave balance will reduce to zero. As this will be a lump-sum payment, it will not automatically attract superannuation.
 

Payment on long service leave

When you are working as a fractional specialist, your pay will be calculated on the average hours worked over the previous two years of employment.

A part-time doctor-in training and all full-time doctors receive pay based on their contracted ordinary weekly hours of work.

Casual doctors and internal locum doctors are paid for their normal weekly hours of work. This is calculated according to the Long Service Leave Act and is something that the industrial relations leave at AMAV can help you with.

It is possible to arrange payment to be made at a half-pay rate across twice the long service leave period, but this does not increase the entitlement accruals that you will receive across the length of your leave.
 

Multiple public health employers

If you are working fractions across multiple public health services, then you will not necessarily be able to take long service leave from all employers concurrently. The Fair Work Commission has found that the transfer of entitlement only occurs from a previous employer to a new employer and that it does not transfer from an existing employer to a concurrent employer.  

As the Victorian public health services are independent legal entities, you will need to work for a second concurrent health service for at least seven years to access a long service leave entitlement from them.
 

Working while on long service leave

Enquiries about long service leave often include the question of whether a doctor is allowed to work while taking their leave. In Victoria it is an offence for an employee to work while on long service leave, even as an independent contractor, and it is an offence for an employer to knowingly hire a worker who is on long service leave.

This prohibition only applies to the actual hours during which you are taking long service leave, so if you are a fractional doctor employed across multiple services and are only eligible for long service leave with one of the employers, you can continue to work your non-leave fraction without fear of penalty.

You are free to perform volunteer work during the hours of your long service leave.
 

We can help

Members are encouraged to get in touch with AMA Victoria if you have any questions or concerns regarding your annual leave entitlement.