Coal mining long service leave calculator

How Coal LSL hours are calculated

Section 39AA of the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Administration Act 1992 credits each week of qualifying service with 13/416 x working hours, and working hours can never exceed 35. A full-time employee's working hours are 35 every week, so each week earns 1.09375 hours and a year earns 56.875.

The fraction is 13 weeks spread over 416 weeks, which is 8 years. Multiply out and 13/416 x 35 x 416 = 455 hours, the figure Coal LSL publishes for 8 years of full-time service.

The 35-hour ceiling applies week by week, and it matters on 12-hour shift rosters. A full-time employee rostered for 42 hours still accrues on 35, so extra hours on the roster do not speed up the leave.

Full-time accrual, from the Coal LSL table

Part-time and casual accrual

Part-time working hours are your ordinary hours for the week, up to 35. On 24 ordinary hours you accrue 13/416 x 24 = 0.75 hours a week, or 312 hours over 8 years.

Casual hours have been averaged over each quarter since 1 January 2024: total casual hours worked in the quarter divided by the applicable weeks beginning in it, then capped at 35 (s 39AA(3) to (5)). Any week with at least 1 day worked is an applicable week, and rostered off-weeks that fall between worked weeks count too.

Casual leave is paid with the casual loading included where it can be quantified (s 39AC(2)(a)). TasBuild does the reverse and leaves casual loading out, so a casual who has worked in both industries should not expect the same treatment.

Casual quarters

When you can take or cash out the leave

When you apply for leave, your employer must reply within 14 days and can refuse only on reasonable business grounds (s 39AB). Hours paid early on redundancy, ill health or retirement are not paid a second time if you later come back to coal (s 39CE).

Payout examples at an illustrative base rate of $55 an hour

What you are paid

Section 39AC sets a floor: the base rate of pay that would have been payable for the leave period, including incentive-based payments and bonuses. Those incentives and bonuses count only if they are paid at least once a month (s 39AC(3)).

• Casuals: the base rate includes the casual loading.
• Public holidays inside the leave: you are taken not to be on leave for that whole day, so it uses no hours (s 39AE).
• Half pay: a matter for agreement between you and your employer. Coal LSL validates the hours.
• Who pays: your employer pays you through payroll, then claims reimbursement from the Fund. The reimbursement can be less than what you were paid, for example where pay is above eligible wages per hour, but it never changes your payment.
• Insolvent or defunct employer: Coal LSL pays you directly from the Fund (s 48).

What counts as qualifying service

Qualifying service is any period in which you are an eligible employee of one or more employers (s 39A(2)), with these taken out:

• unauthorised absences;
• unpaid leave, except community service leave, stand-downs and absences on workers compensation;
• unpaid parental leave and government-funded paid parental leave (employer-funded paid parental leave still counts);
• periods covered by a waiver agreement;
• everything before a break of 8 years or more.

From 1 January 2012 only a continuous break of 8 years or more wipes earlier service, and not if you were already entitled when the break began (s 39A(4)). Before 2012 the allowable break was 3 months. Coal LSL reviews missing service back to 1 January 2000, but recognises pre-2012 service only if you have at least one day of service in 2012.

Who is an eligible employee

Eligibility follows the work, not the award classification. Your employer must be a national system employer, and you must be:

• employed in the black coal mining industry by an employer in that industry, in duties directly connected with the day-to-day operation of a black coal mine; or
• employed in the industry and working at or about a black coal mine on that day-to-day operation; or
• a permanent mine rescue employee; or
• a prescribed person.

Full-time, part-time and casual employees are all covered, including people employed by contractor companies and job agencies. Maintenance crews are eligible. Crews building new mining equipment are not, until they move onto maintenance.

Why state long service leave calculators do not apply

For an eligible black coal employee, Part 5A of the Administration Act applies to the exclusion of state and territory long service leave laws (s 39EA) and of the long service leave division of the National Employment Standards (s 39E). A state calculator asks about years with one employer, which is the wrong question in coal: the Act counts weeks with any coal employer and pays in hours.

The Black Coal Mining Industry Award 2020 does not fill the gap. Its only mention of long service leave is clause 18.5, which stops accident pay during paid leave; there is no long service leave clause. An enterprise agreement can give more than the Act, never less (s 39EB). Award pay rates are on the Black Coal Mining Award pay rates page.

Coal LSL vs construction portable schemes

The detail for each construction scheme is on the NSW construction long service leave calculator and TasBuild long service leave calculator pages, and every scheme is listed on the portable long service leave by state page.

Checking your balance and applying

• Your LSL Number is on the notice your employer gives you, and it is your username for the Coal LSL self-service portal.
• Ask for a balance online, with the Request My Leave Balance form, or on 1300 852 625.
• Coal LSL cannot accept leave forms from employees. Apply through the authorised contact at your current or most recent employer.
• If that employer is insolvent or no longer exists, Coal LSL pays from the Fund instead (s 48).

For employers: the 2.7% levy, returns and reimbursement

• Levy: 2.7% of each eligible employee's eligible wages paid on or after 1 July 2023, up from 2%. It is never taken from the employee's pay.
• Returns: a levy return and payment every month, due within 28 days of the end of the month.
• Late payment: an additional levy applies, and the 2026 Amendment Act introduced a new additional levy penalty rate tied to the Reserve Bank cash rate.
• Reimbursement: pay the employee first, then claim from the Fund under the Employer Reimbursement Rules.
• Unpaid Levy Payment Arrangement: the Coal Mining Industry (Long Service Leave) Legislation Amendment Act 2026 (Royal Assent 6 July 2026) lets employers pay historical unpaid levies in instalments over 6 years from 1 September 2026, with the last 20% waived once 80% is repaid. The Notice of Intention deadline is 2 November 2026.

Levy at 2.7%

Related pages

• Black Coal Mining Award pay rates for minimum rates on a 35-hour week.
• Mining Award pay rates for metal and mineral mining, which is outside Coal LSL.
• Long service leave tax calculator for the general rules on taxing a long service lump sum.
• Portable long service leave by state for every other scheme.