Appeal tests whether an employee's calling preserves continuity of service
Queensland’s industrial court has reopened a long service leave dispute tied to labour hire and continuity.
On December 5, 2025, the Industrial Court of Queensland allowed an appeal by Timothy Ferris and sent his case back to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission to decide a narrow question: whether his long service could be treated as continuous because his role — his “calling” — moved between employers while his work continued in Woodlands’ enterprise.
Ferris worked in Woodlands H.R. Pty Ltd’s poultry operation from March 2005 until 2022. He was directly employed by Woodlands from 2005 to 2009, then by Forum‑A Pty Ltd from 2009 to November 14, 2017, before returning to Woodlands from November 15, 2017, to 2022. Across all three periods, he worked within Woodlands’ enterprise, including in weighbridge duties.
Under Queensland’s Industrial Relations Act, long service leave generally hinges on 10 years of continuous service with one employer, with a proportionate payment after seven. The Commission had dismissed Ferris’s claim, finding no intent by Woodlands to avoid long service leave obligations when his employment changed in 2009 and no transfer of Woodlands’ calling to Forum‑A.
President Davis upheld those findings but identified a missing issue: the Commission had not considered whether Ferris’s own calling — rather than Woodlands’ calling — could have been transferred between employers in a way that preserves continuity. The court adopted a reading of the statute that allows continuity to be preserved where an employee’s calling moves from one employer to another and held that this question should be determined on proper evidence and submissions.
That point had not been argued below, and the relevant appellate guidance emerged after the Commission hearings. The court therefore allowed the appeal and remitted the case. Industrial Commissioner Pidgeon will now determine whether Ferris’s continuity of employment was preserved by a transfer of his calling and then make any further orders consistent with that outcome and the Commission’s existing findings in Ferris v Woodlands H.R. Pty Ltd (No. 2) [2024] QIRC 172.
For HR leaders, the case focuses attention on long service leave risk where roles move between direct employment and labour hire but work continues within the same enterprise. If a worker’s calling can carry across employers without breaking continuity, long service leave entitlements may be affected. The court made no final ruling on Ferris’s entitlement; it directed the Commission to examine the transfer‑of‑calling question.
