Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Legislation Amendment Act 2011

If an eligible employee completes a period of qualifying service that is, or periods of qualifying service that add up to, at least 8 years, the employee is entitled to long service leave under this Part in respect of that period, or those periods, of qualifying service.

A period of qualifying service by an employee is a period during which the employee is an eligible employee of one or more employers, but does not include any of the following:

a period of unauthorised absence;

a period of unpaid leave or unpaid authorised absence, other than:

a period of absence under Division 8 of Part 2‑2 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (which deals with community service leave); or

a period of stand down under Part 3‑5 of the Fair Work Act 2009, under an enterprise agreement that applies (within the meaning of that Act) to the employee, or under the employee’s contract of employment; or

a period during which the employee is absent from work because of a personal illness, or a personal injury, for which the employee is receiving compensation under a law of the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory that is about workers’ compensation or under an industrial instrument; or

a period of leave or absence of a kind prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this paragraph;

if the employee ceases to be an eligible employee for a continuous period (a break period) of 8 years or more—any period before the break period during which the employee was an eligible employee;

any period during which a waiver agreement is in effect between the employee and an employer;

any other period of a kind prescribed by the regulations for the purposes of this paragraph.

For the purposes of subsection (2), if a casual employee is an eligible employee at any time during a week, the employee is taken to have been an eligible employee for the whole week.

If:

an employee ceases to be an eligible employee for a continuous period of 8 years or more; and

at the time of so ceasing, the employee is entitled to long service leave under subsection (1) in respect of a period, or periods, of qualifying service (the employee’s previous qualifying service); and

the employee becomes an eligible employee again;