Australia: The Long and the Short of It: Long Service Leave and Flexible Parental Leave Updates for 2025

Long Service Leave

Long service leave is an entitlement regulated by each of the states and territories in Australia. Our previous articles explained the long service leave entitlements in each state and territory, as well as how extraterritorial service is recognised for the purposes of calculating long service leave. This article provides an update on the position in QLD, VIC and NSW.

Queensland

In Queensland, an employee must complete 10 years of continuous service ‘with the same employer’ in order to be entitled to take long service leave. Continuous service, for the purposes of the Industrial Relations Act 2016 (QLD), includes any work performed for the same employer, whether wholly in the state of Queensland, or for extraterritorial service – ‘partly in and partly outside the State’. 

In a recent decision (Infosys Technologies Ltd v Fox [2025] QCA 045), the Queensland Court of Appeal has upheld the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission’s (QIRC’s) decision regarding an employee of Infosys Technologies Limited, who commenced employment with Infosys in 2012 in India, completed a period of service in Victoria and completed just 18 days of continuous service in Queensland, whilst serving out his notice period. The QIRC determined that despite only completing 18 days of his employment in Queensland, with the balance in Victoria and India, this was sufficient to constitute service that was ‘partly in and partly outside the State’, which meant he qualified for a long service leave payment on termination of his employment in Queensland.

Infosys sought special leave to appeal the Court of Appeal’s decision; however, special leave was refused as the High Court found Infosys had insufficient prospects of success on appeal. 

Victoria

In our previous article, we considered the position in Victoria in relation to the recognition of extraterritorial service, after a landmark decision by the Victorian Court of Appeal (Infosys Technologies Ltd (ACN 090 591 209) v State of Victoria [2021] VSCA 219). 

In a contrasting position to that in Queensland, the Victorian Court of Appeal held that it wasn’t sufficient that some service is outside the State – there must also be a connection between a period of continuous service and Victoria, at the time the service is undertaken. As a result, in that decision, Infosys did not have an obligation to pay the applicant employees long service leave, as their overseas service did not count for the purposes of the Long Service Leave Act 2018 (VIC).

New South Wales 

The position in New South Wales regarding extraterritorial service is now similar to that in Victoria. In New South Wales, pursuant to the Court of Appeal’s decision in Wipro Limited v State of New South Wales [2022] NSWCA 265, the entirety of an employee’s service, both inside and outside of NSW, must have a substantial connection to NSW to count towards continuous service for the purposes of the Long Service Leave Act 1955 (NSW). 

In that case, an employee who had worked for Wipro Ltd (Wipro) for six years in India and then nearly five years in NSW pursuant to a deputation agreement, was held to not be entitled to long service leave on termination of employment. The Court held that his period of service in India was a distinct period which was not “substantially connected” to NSW, and therefore Wipro did not have an obligation to pay any long service leave on termination of employment. 

Key takeaways

Employers who employ employees across jurisdictions should be aware of the differing interpretations of continuous service, and how extraterritorial service is considered, for the purposes of calculating long service leave entitlements. 

This is of particular importance for employers who engage employees on secondments or other arrangements which require them to complete periods of service in jurisdictions such as Queensland (or a jurisdiction with similarly worded legislation), where even short periods of performing work may be sufficient to entitle employees to long service leave upon completion of the requisite continuous service period.

Flexible unpaid parental leave

Under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act), employees are entitled to 12 months of unpaid parental leave which typically must be taken in one single continuous period.

As of 1 July 2025, an employee may take up to 120 days of flexible unpaid parental leave (Flexible Leave) during the 24 month period from the date of birth or day of placement of the child. Flexible Leave can be taken as: 
-    A single continuous period of one day or longer; or 
-    Separate periods of one day or longer each.
From 1 July 2026, this will increase to up to 130 days.
Flexible Leave must be taken after the employee takes a period of unpaid parental leave, as the employee’s entitlement to unpaid parental leave (except for Flexible Leave) ends on the first day that the employee takes Flexible Leave.

Key takeaways 

Employers should update their parental leave policies to reflect the increased period of available Flexible Leave and be prepared for more employees to come back to work from parental leave on a more flexible basis. Flexible Leave is most commonly used by employees to “ease back in” to work. We have seen examples where employees return to work on a 3-day per week basis and take 2 days per week as Flexible Leave, for a total of up to 120 days.