Portable Redundancy Schemes

Construction has a redundancy layer most industries do not — portable redundancy schemes that build a redundancy entitlement across employers. They are separate from portable long service leave (a common mix-up), they are driven by enterprise agreements, and they are for employees, not subbies.‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍

Redundancy is not long service leave

First, clear up the confusion: in Victoria, LeavePlus (formerly CoINVEST) is the portable LONG SERVICE LEAVE scheme — see Portable Long Service Leave. Redundancy is a separate scheme — Incolink. They are two different layers; do not conflate them.

The schemes

All are EBA-driven — they apply only where a worker's enterprise agreement requires contributions:

VIC — Incolink: redundancy payments for Victorian commercial-construction workers covered by EBAs. Employers make monthly contributions based on the weeks worked on commercial sites. To claim, the worker must be entitled to redundancy under their EBA and registered with Incolink.
QLD & NT — BERT (Building Employees Redundancy Trust): established in 1989, for building and construction workers in Queensland and the Northern Territory whose employers make BERT contributions (typically under relevant EBAs). Workers access their account balance and claim online with a separation certificate. (BERT contributions are not subject to Queensland payroll tax.)
National — ACIRT (Australian Construction Industry Redundancy Trust): a national redundancy fund for workers under EBAs that require ACIRT contributions.

The pattern is the same: the employer contributes to the relevant fund for each covered employee under the EBA, and when employment ends and the EBA eligibility is met, the worker claims the accrued benefit.

Employees only — not subbies

This is the catch for the self-employed: portable redundancy is for employees only. A sole trader or ABN subcontractor running their own business is not entitled to employer-funded redundancy — the schemes are built on employer contributions for employees, and a self-employed person has no employer making them. (It is the same logic as there being no Super Guarantee for yourself as a sole trader — see Sole Trader Super & Retirement.) If you want that kind of safety net as a sole trader, you build it yourself.