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The NSW Government is soon to be introducing a new portable long service leave scheme for people working in community services in NSW, called the Community Services Industry scheme.
The scheme will allow workers to claim for long service leave if they have continued to work within the community services sector, even if they have worked for more than one employer.
The scheme was a key election commitment, aimed at supporting a sustainable workforce and operates in a number of other states and territories.
NADA supports the introduction of the Portable Long Service Scheme for the community services sector in NSW, but warns that it results in an unfunded cost increase for many community service providers.
The levy imposed under the scheme is expected to be set at 1.7%, which means that organisations will be required to pay out 1.7% of their worker’s gross ordinary wages per quarter to the Long Service Corporation.
These funds remain in the scheme regardless of whether an organisation’s staff become eligible and claim under the scheme.
With rising delivery costs and growing service demands, this scheme risks the sustainability of NGOs who are already struggling to delivery high-quality services.
NADA and other NSW NGO peaks are advocating that the NSW Government cover the cost of the scheme for organisations. NADA has raised this with the NSW Health Ministers Office and at the NSW Ministry of Health NGO Advisory Group urging that consideration be given in the NSW Budget to apply indexation to cover the scheme’s impact. We are committed to working with the Government to find a workable solution.
This webinar recording provides an overview of the scheme, with presentations from the Long Service Corporation, Stakeholder Engagement team and members of Accounting 4 Good, not for profit accounting specialists.
It provides information on how organisations can be prepared for the implementation of the scheme, where to go for additional information and how to stay up to date.
More information can be found at the Long Service Corporation website.
The Long Service Corporation team can be contacted at communityservices@longservice.nsw.gov.au or 13 14 41 or contact Chris Keyes at NADA.
