Legislated changes to long service leave in Victoria from 1 November 2018 (Australia)

Information here relates to MYOB Exo Payroll, and employees based in Victoria, Australia.

The “Long Service Leave Act 2018 (Vic)” brings several changes to Long Service Leave entitlement (“LSL”) and operation. This article covers how these can be applied within Exo Payroll.

Overview

These changes come into effect on 1 November 2018.

Employees are entitled to take LSL after 7 years (previously 10 years):

This requires creation of a new Long Service Leave Group, which is then added to employee records.
Exo Payroll can be configured with either “Traditional” or “New” leave management options. Keep in mind the settings for each are slightly different.

For employees on Parental Leave - LSL should now accrue on all Paid Parental Leave and first 52 weeks of Unpaid Parental Leave (previously was no accrual). NB - while the document available from "File Attachments" suggests implementing by creating a new “LSL Victoria” allowance, this might not work as expected in present software:

Service Management Record 172660890313 has been raised for this issue. Here is an alternative option to continue LSL accrual while blocking other types.
Ensure the Hours Paid figure on the bottom left of the Standard Pay screen is zero - this will prevent accrual of Annual, Personal, and LSL.
Periodically (or perhaps on return to work and normal accrual resumes) use a manual calculation and make LSL "Carry Over" adjustment to add whatever should have accrued.

For employees on Parental Leave beyond 52 weeks – this does not break continuity of Employment (previously, a longer absence could result in loss of entitlement):

This requires creation of another new “LSL Victoria” allowance, not liable for LSL, applied to employees after 52 weeks.

Employees can take LSL one day at a time (previously needed to take in longer blocks):

This has always depended on employer discretion.

For Employees whose hours of work have changed during their employment, LSL rate (commonly per hour) should be calculated at the highest average over the previous 12 months, five years or the entire period of employment (previously was 12 months or 5 years):

Exo Payroll defaults to rate from employee’s “Standard Pay”. The above options would require manual calculation and override.

Detailed setup instructions and further information

To download a document with more detailed setup instructions and more information, click here.

Need more help? You can open the online help by pressing F1 on your keyboard while in your software.

You can also find more help resources on the MYOB Exo Employer Services Education Centre for Australia or New Zealand.