ÜBER DIESE EPISODE
A sixteen-year-old casual calls in to say she can't work for four days because of exams. Whoever takes that call is making a long service leave decision they probably don't realise they're making. Dave Kenyon sits down with Toni Minovski, Industrial Relations Stakeholder Manager at NSW Industrial Relations, to unpack why long service leave is one of the most misunderstood and highest-risk areas of Australian workforce compliance — and why getting it right starts with the person answering the phone, not the software running the calculation.
About our guest
Toni Minovski is the Industrial Relations Stakeholder Manager for NSW Industrial Relations, where he works directly with businesses to translate industrial relations legislation into practical, compliant outcomes. He's a regular speaker at industry events including the Australian Payroll Association Summit, and long service leave is, in his own words, his favourite topic.
What we cover
- Why long service leave is Toni's "favourite topic" — and one of the most misunderstood parts of Australian workforce compliance
- The updated long service leave guidance NSW IR released on 1 March, and why they built it
- Why Australia's industrial relations landscape is considered the third most complex in the world
- The "pub test": persistent workplace myths (three warnings before termination, automatic overtime, long service leave after seven years) that aren't actually in the Fair Work Act
- The exam-leave phone call: a real scenario showing how long service leave decisions get made by people who don't know they're making them
- Our Humans vs AI game: where AI-powered long service leave calculators help, and why a human still has to check every calculation
- NSW IR's self-reporting channel, and why Toni says it's not a "big stick" approach
- Our Change Your Mind game: how responsibility for compliance has shifted across leadership, payroll, and systems
- Our Prediction & Warning game: Toni's call on long service leave harmonisation, and his warning about trusting AI blindly
- Toni's closing catch-cry on why thorough record keeping is the most important thing in compliance
Links
- Toni Minovski: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toni-minovski-54849230/
- NSW Industrial Relations: https://www.industrialrelations.nsw.gov.au/
- Dave Kenyon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davekenyon5/
- OAHI: https://www.linkedin.com/company/oahi
About OAHI
OAHI is a workforce management platform helping organisations manage time & attendance, payroll compliance, and award interpretation with greater accuracy and less manual overhead. Evolving Workforce brings on industry leaders to unpack the real challenges shaping HR, payroll, and workforce technology today. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode.
TRANSKRIPT 🔗
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And I think the boardroom is now looking at it thinking, let's manage that risk.
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We want to make sure that our employees are being paid correctly for a number of reasons, but obviously because we want them to turn up and do the best they can for us.
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At the Australian Payroll Summit, we uh we heard one of the speakers there um ad advise us all that the Australian industrial relations landscape is the …
