• Under the WA Long Service Leave Act, it is compulsory for employers to keep employment records for all employees.
• All records relevant to the calculation of an employee’s long service leave must be kept for the employee’s entire period of employment and for seven years after the employee’s employment ends.

You can check the coverage of the Long Service Leave Act on the Long Service Leave - Who is covered by the Long Service Leave Act? page and find links to other information on our main Long service leave page. 

Under the Long Service Leave Act it is compulsory for employers to keep employment records for all employees detailing:

• the employee's name, and  the employee’s date of birth if under 21 years of age
• the employer’s name and Australian Business Number (if any)
• the date the employee commenced employment with the employer
• the weekly hours worked by the employee
• the gross and net amount paid to the employee, and all deductions and the reasons for them
• all leave taken, whether paid, partly paid or unpaid
• details of the any leave foregone under an agreement to cash out long service leave, including the amount of leave cashed out, the benefit that was paid, and the date this occurred
• the date of any transfer of business during the employment of the employee
• any other details necessary for the calculation of the entitlement to and payment for long service leave.

The employer must keep all records relating to the calculation of an employee’s long service leave for the employee’s entire period of employment. All records must also be kept for seven years after the employee’s employment ends.

An employer must also keep a record of any written agreement to cash out long service leave including the amount of leave cashed out, the amount that was paid, and the date that payment occurred.

If there is a transfer of a business, the old employer must transfer copies of all transferring employees’ employment records to the new employer. This will enable the new employer to accurately determine an employee’s long service leave entitlement.

Penalties for not keeping employment records

Employers can be fined up to $13,000 (or up to $130,000 in the case of a serious contravention) for individuals or a penalty of up to $65,000 (or up to $650,000 in the case of a serious contravention) for bodies corporate for:

• not keeping employment records;
• keeping an employment record that the employer knows, or could reasonably be expected to know, is false or misleading; and
• failing to transfer copies of transferring employees’ employment records to the new employer, where there is a transfer of business.

A serious contravention is defined as a situation in which the person knowingly commits the contravention and this conduct is part of a systematic pattern of conduct relating to one or more other persons.

Penalties can also be imposed on people such as accountants and HR officers responsible for maintaining and keeping employment records for a business if they are involved in an employer’s contravention of the record keeping requirements.

Employer burden to disprove an allegation

An employer will have the burden of disproving an allegation made in proceedings to enforce an entitlement to long service leave if the employer was required to:

• make or keep an employment record under the Long Service Leave Act in relation to the matter; or
• make available for inspection a record in relation to the matter;

and failed to comply with the requirement.

The burden of disproving an allegation does not apply, however, if the employer provides a reasonable excuse for the failure to comply with the requirement to make or keep a record, or make a record available for inspection.