New South Wales launches portal for portable leave

Long Service Corporation has launched an Appian-based digital application for community services workers in New South Wales to access portable long service leave across multiple employers. Deloitte helped deliver the system.

The application is aimed at a sector where workers often move between employers, work on short-term contracts or take career breaks, making it harder to meet the continuous service test used in traditional long service leave arrangements. It covers areas including housing and homelessness support, mental health services, and family and domestic violence support.

Long Service Corporation, a New South Wales Government statutory body, says the portal is designed to help about 250,000 workers and 2,400 employers track and manage accrued service. It allows workers to build up leave entitlements across multiple employers rather than through a single uninterrupted period of service.

Early figures suggest broad initial use. Since the Community Services Industry portal went live in April 2026, more than 8,200 service returns have been submitted by more than 2,100 employers, representing an 80% completion rate.

Over the same period, more than 210,000 workers have been nominated into the scheme, allowing them to begin accruing portable long service leave. Long Service Corporation has also received more than $100 million in levy payments, with total collections projected to exceed $115 million by 1 September 2026.

The rollout adds a digital layer to an administrative process that can be complex for both workers and employers. The end-to-end application uses several New South Wales Government shared services and links with MyServiceNSW accounts for identity verification and online interaction.

Workers and employers can receive digital notifications, submit information and manage service return payments through self-service portals. For Long Service Corporation, the system is also intended to reduce manual processing through worker-matching tools, guided workflows and a clearer view of employer-worker relationships.

That matters in a labour market where service patterns do not fit older assumptions of a single long-term employer. Community services work is often fragmented across organisations and funding cycles, making benefit administration more difficult even when entitlement rules are designed to reflect those conditions.

Lauren Nagel, executive director of Long Service Corporation, outlined the project's operational focus.

"Workers and employers now have dedicated self-service portals and Long Service Corporation can also manage the scheme more efficiently and at scale," Nagel said.

"Using the application, workers and employers can securely interact with LSC through their MyServiceNSW accounts, complete identity verification, receive digital notifications, and manage service return payments online," she said.

Partners involved

Appian supplied the software platform, while Deloitte worked with Long Service Corporation on legislative requirements, operating processes and implementation. The project reflects how public sector bodies are combining workflow software with policy and compliance work to launch new digital services more quickly.

Long Service Corporation also uses Appian Process HQ to monitor adoption, compliance and operational performance across the scheme. Additional case management functions are expected in later phases, although no further timing details were provided.

Kal Marshall, area vice president for Australia and New Zealand at Appian, said the project reflected a broader effort to modernise public administration for workers in essential services.

"Long Service Corporation's use case highlights how technology can help simplify highly complex administrative processes while improving outcomes for the people who rely on them most," Marshall said.

"For many community services workers, long service leave is a meaningful benefit that can be difficult to access under traditional employment models. By building a streamlined and scalable digital experience, Long Service Corporation is helping ensure workers can more easily receive the entitlements they have earned," he said.

Deloitte said the work required close alignment between legislation, policy and delivery because portable long service leave schemes are specialised and operationally complex. This is especially important where entitlements depend on accurate records across many employers and a large worker base.

Adam Karasiewicz, partner at Deloitte, said the project had to bring policy and technical work together within a tight implementation window.

"Portable long service leave schemes are highly specialised and require strong alignment between legislation, policy and operational delivery," Karasiewicz said.

"By combining Deloitte's workplace integrity and policy expertise with Appian's platform capabilities, we were able to help LSC deliver a secure, accessible and scalable solution quickly," he said.