Portable long service leave: CoINVEST and friends

Portable long service leave lets construction workers carry recognised service between employers. CoINVEST runs Victoria’s scheme, while every other state and territory has its own fund, rates, returns and worker rules. Employers must register and report to the correct schemes.

Why construction has portable long service leave

Ordinary long service leave usually depends on staying with one employer for several years. That does not fit construction very well. Workers move between contractors, projects and labour hire firms, often without leaving the industry.

Portable schemes track qualifying service across those moves. The worker builds an industry service record rather than starting again with every employer.

The catch is that Australia does not have one national construction scheme. CoINVEST only covers Victoria. NSW, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory each run separate arrangements.

That means your payroll setup depends on three things:

1. Where the work is performed.
2. Whether the employer and worker perform covered construction work.
3. How that jurisdiction funds and records the benefit.

Your head office address is not the deciding factor. A Victorian business sending workers to an ACT project may have ACT reporting obligations as well as Victorian ones.

CoINVEST in Victoria

CoINVEST covers eligible workers in Victoria’s construction industry. This can include employees, working directors and some independent contractors, depending on their work and circumstances.

Employers must register eligible workers, submit service information and pay the applicable levy. CoINVEST returns generally capture each worker’s service and assessable pay. Do not simply copy the STP gross amount. Overtime, allowances, leave and other payments may be treated differently under the scheme’s rules.

The CoINVEST employer levy is 2.7 per cent of assessable wages, as at September 2026. For example, assessable wages of $100,000 would produce a $2,700 levy before any adjustments.

Registration with CoINVEST does not replace ordinary payroll reporting. You may still have PAYG withholding, super, payroll tax, workers compensation and award or enterprise agreement obligations.

How the schemes compare

Here is the practical comparison. Rates and project thresholds can change, so check the relevant authority before lodging or pricing a job.

Jurisdiction	Scheme administrator	Main funding pattern	What payroll or accounts must capture
Victoria	CoINVEST	Employer levy based on covered wages	Worker service, assessable pay and return details
New South Wales	Long Service Corporation	Levy attached to eligible building and construction projects	Worker service records, commencement and cessation information
Queensland	QLeave	Levy attached to eligible building and construction projects	Worker service returns and covered work details
South Australia	Portable Long Service Leave	Employer levy based on covered remuneration	Worker registration, service and remuneration
Western Australia	MyLeave	Employer contributions based on covered worker remuneration	Days of service, ordinary pay and worker details
Tasmania	TasBuild	Mainly project-based funding	Worker service and project information
Australian Capital Territory	ACT Long Service Leave Authority	Employer levy based on covered wages	Quarterly wages and service information
Northern Territory	NT Build	Mainly project-based funding	Project levy details and worker service records

There are some useful numbers to know when jobs are being set up:

• In NSW, the building and construction long service levy is 0.25 per cent for liable work costing $250,000 or more, as at September 2026.
• In Queensland, the portable long service leave component is 0.25 per cent for liable work costing at least $150,000, as at September 2026. Other Queensland project levies may also appear in the combined assessment.
• In Victoria, a 2.7 per cent CoINVEST rate applied to $80,000 of assessable wages produces a $2,160 contribution, as at September 2026.

Those figures show why the accounting treatment differs. In Victoria, the levy follows covered payroll. In NSW and Queensland, the funding levy is generally connected to project cost, while employers still report workers’ service.

The payroll traps to watch

Assuming every site worker is covered

Coverage is based on legislation and scheme definitions. Job titles help, but they are not enough. A person called a project manager may perform covered work, while another person with the same title may be office-based and outside the scheme.

Check the actual duties, employment arrangement and location of work. Keep the reason for your decision on file.

Using one earnings base everywhere

Do not create a single portable leave wage category and use it nationally. Each authority defines covered remuneration, ordinary pay or assessable wages differently.

Map payroll codes scheme by scheme. Test overtime, bonuses, site allowances, fares, travel, leave payments, termination payments and salary sacrifice separately.

Forgetting service-only returns

A project-funded scheme can still require employers to report worker service. Paying a levy when the project is approved does not necessarily finish the employer’s obligations.

Payroll and project accounts need to talk to each other. Accounts may know the project levy was paid. Payroll knows who worked, where they worked and for how long.

Treating interstate service as one record

A worker may have records with several authorities. Reciprocal arrangements can sometimes help when the worker claims a benefit, but the rules are not identical.

Do not manually combine service or transfer balances in payroll. Report each period to the authority responsible for that work location. Let the authorities assess recognition when a claim is made.

Paying leave without checking reimbursement rules

Depending on the scheme and circumstances, an employer may pay the worker and seek reimbursement, or the authority may pay the worker directly. Check the approval process before running the payment.

You also need to confirm tax, super and termination treatment. A portable long service leave payment is not automatically processed the same way as ordinary long service leave paid from the employer’s own provision.

A workable payroll process

Start with a site and worker register. For every worker, record the employing entity, work state, project, covered occupation, scheme number and dates on site.

Then follow this routine:

1. Check scheme coverage during onboarding and whenever the worker changes site.
2. Register the employer and worker within the authority’s required timeframe.
3. Map assessable earnings separately for each wage-funded scheme.
4. Record service days or periods using the relevant authority’s method.
5. Reconcile scheme returns to payroll, site records and the general ledger.
6. Report transfers, extended absences and terminations promptly.
7. Keep return confirmations and evidence supporting exclusions.

A monthly check is sensible even where the formal return is quarterly. It is much easier to fix one month of missing site allocations than reconstruct a year from timesheets.

Portable leave should sit inside your wider payroll operations process, not in a spreadsheet owned by one person. Before a review or scheme enquiry, use the compliance audit checklist to test registrations, earnings mapping, service records and levy reconciliations.

The simple rule is this: follow the worker and the work location, then apply that jurisdiction’s definitions. CoINVEST may be the familiar name in Victoria, but it is only one member of a very state-based family.