Clerks Private Sector Award 2020 (MA000002)

This article provides guidelines about when to use the different work types and tags that are included as part of the pre-built Clerks Private Sector award package. For further information about this industry award, refer to Clerks Private Sector Award 

 

Key Updates to Award
Last Updated: Novmeber 2021
Key_Updates

 

Installing and Configuring the Pre-Built Award Package

For details on how to install and configure this Pre-built Award Template, please review the detailed help article here.

While every effort is made to provide a high-quality service, YourPayroll does not accept responsibility for, guarantee or warrant the accuracy, completeness or up-to-date nature of the service. Before relying on the information, users should carefully evaluate its accuracy, currency, completeness and relevance for their purposes, and should obtain any appropriate professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances.

Work Types

COVID-19 Not Worked
Use this work type when an employee's ordinary hours have been reduced during the coronavirus outbreak and they are not working.

First Aid Officer
Use this work type when an employee who has been trained to render first aid and who is the current holder of appropriate first aid qualifications and is appointed by the employer to perform first aid duty. Using this work type will add a weekly allowance.

Overtime Meal
Use this work type when an employee is required to work more than 1.5 hours of overtime after their ordinary end time without being provided 24 hours’ prior notice.

Motorcycle Allowance
Use this work type to record the number of kilometres an employee has travelled using their own motorcycle in the performance of their duties.

Motor Car Allowance
Use this work type to record the number of kilometres an employee has travelled using their own vehicle in the performance of their duties.

Public Holiday not Worked
Choose this work type where an employee is not required to work on a shift falling on a gazetted public holiday that the employee would have otherwise worked had it not been a public holiday.

Overtime Meal (4+ OT hrs)
Use this work type when an employee is required to work more than 4 hours of overtime after their ordinary end time without being provided 24 hours’ prior notice.

No Meal Break
A half hour unpaid meal break is automatically deducted for shifts over 5 hours. Use this work type to indicate that no meal break was taken during the shift so that a meal break is not deducted from hours worked. The employee will be paid at double their hourly rate if this occurs as per clause 26.1 of the Award.

Annual Leave
Choose this work type when annual leave is taken as per clause 29 of the Award.

Personal/Carer's Leave
Choose this work type when personal or carer's leave is taken as per clause 30 of the Award.

Long Service Leave
Choose this work type when long service leave is taken

Unpaid Leave
Choose this work type when unpaid leave is taken

Compassionate Leave
Choose this work type when compassionate leave is taken as per clause 30 of the Award.

Time in Lieu Taken
Choose this work type when time in lieu is taken

TIL of Overtime*
Choose this work type if the employee elects to accrue time in lieu rather than be paid for any overtime for a shift. Refer to clause 27.5 of the Award.

Working from Home
Use this work type when an employee is working from home during the coronavirus outbreak.

 

Tags

7-day shiftworker
Assign this tag if the employee is employed as a seven day shift worker who is regularly rostered to work on Sundays and public holidays for the purpose of accruing an additional 1 week of annual leave per year.

First Aid Officer
Assign this tag to an employee who has been trained to render first aid and who is the current holder of appropriate first aid qualifications and is appointed in writing to perform first aid duty on a regular ongoing basis. If this tag is assigned to an employee, you will not be required to attach the First Aid Officer work type to the employee's timesheet as the allowance will be assigned automatically.

Laundry
Assign this tag to an employee where their uniform is not laundered at the expense of the employer. Full time employees will be paid a weekly allowance. Part time and casual employees will be paid an allowance per shift worked as per clause 19.2 (c) of the Award.

Permanent Night Shift
Assign this tag to a shiftworker who is required to work night shifts that do not rotate with another shift or shifts or day work and which continues for a period of not less than four consecutive weeks.

TIL of OT*
Assign this tag to an employee where they elect to permanently accrue time in lieu rather than be paid at overtime rates. Refer to clause 27.5 of the Award.

 

*Time off instead of payment for overtime leave is accrued at the same rate as the number of overtime hours worked. EXAMPLE: an employee who worked two (2) overtime hours is entitled to two (2) hours’ time off. If time off for overtime is not taken and the time off is to be paid out, it must be paid at the overtime rate applicable to the overtime when worked. This also applies when an employee is terminated and the time off is to be paid out. In order to be paid out correctly, the overtime rate will need to be recorded manually at the same time as the time in lieu accrual is processed. It is suggested that you record the overtime details in the “notes” section of the leave accrual line in the pay run.

If you are required to pay out the time off for overtime either before termination or during termination, you can run a Pay Run Audit Report for the pay runs for the employee when Time in Lieu was accrued to determine the applicable rates (which will detail your notes) and run an Employee Payment History Report to determine if any of the time off for overtime has been taken. You can then determine the correct balance based on the number of hours by taking the equivalent to the overtime payment that would have been made EXAMPLE: an employee who worked two (2) overtime hour at what would have been the rate of time and a half, is then entitled to three (3) hours of time off leave to be accrued. In our above example (the first accrual line of the screen shot) you would take 0.5 hours x 1.5 = 0.75 hours. Therefore, you will need to adjust the time in lieu balance by adding a further 0.25 hours (0.75 hours – 0.5 hours = 0.25 hours). 

Working from Home

Assign this tag when employee is working from home during coronavirus outbreak.

Key Updates

January 2023

 

1 July 2022

The Award has been updated to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s National Minimum Wage increase of detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2021-22 decision. This also includes updates to expense-related allowances. Information on the Determinations can be found here and here. These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2022. Please install these updates AFTER you have finalised your last pay run prior to the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2022.

 

June 2022

The Clerks (Private Sector) Permanent Dayworkers and the Clerks (Private Sector) Casual Dayworkers rulesets have been updated to remove the limit of one meal break per shift if an employee works more than 10 hours (Clause 15.3).

May 2022

The Clerks (Private Sector) Permanent Shiftworkers and the Clerks (Private Sector) Casual Shiftworkers rulesets have been updated to ensure the correct overtime rate applies when an employee works in excess of the ordinary daily hours on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday that is not an ordinary working day (Clause 28.1, Table 6). A new work type, Work Outside Ordinary Days, has been created to use in this scenario. Two new pay categories have been created, Permanent - Overtime Weekends & PH Outside Normal Working Period (Shiftworker) and Casual - Overtime Weekends & PH Outside Normal Working Period (Shiftworker), to apply overtime in this scenario.

The Clerks (Private Sector) Permanent Shiftworkers and the Clerks (Private Sector) Casual Shiftworkers rulesets have also been updated to ensure the application the 4 hour minimum engagement for overtime worked on Saturday, Sunday or a public holiday, where the employee would not have been ordinarily rostered to work that day and the work is not continuous with the start or finish of the employee's ordinary shift (Clause 28.3).

November 2021

The Award has been updated in line with the ATO's requirements for STP Phase 2 reporting. The reporting of gross earnings are now being disaggregated into distinguishable categories. The Pay Category payment classifications have been updated in line with the ATO specification categories found here. For further information please see our STP support article.

July 1 2021

The Award has been updated to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s National Minimum Wage increase of 2.5% detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2020-21 decision. This also includes updates to expense-related
allowances. Information on the Determinations can be found here and here.

These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2021. Please install these updates AFTER you have finalised your last pay run prior to the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2021.

Updates have also been made to the Leave Category Family & Domestic Violence Leave, so that the balance is displayed in days instead of hours in line with the National Employment Standards.

Once the update is installed, all employee’s FDV leave balances will be displayed in days not hours. This will mean that an employee’s balance may now show as 38 days. In order to correct the balance please see How to Fix Family & Domestic Violence Leave Balance Data.

This update is to ensure that any new installs of this award conducted since 1 July are now captured with the SG increase from 9.5% to 10% for all pay categories. If you have installed this award between 1 July 2021 to 8 July 2021 for the first time, please ensure you select "NO" to preserve custom pay categories. If you were using this award prior to 1 July 2021, then you do not need to select "NO." Further information can be found in Incorrect SG rate used in pay runs article here.

 

May 2021

The award pay rate templates have been updated to ensure that the legislated superannuation guarantee (SG) rate will increase automatically from 9.5% to 10% effective from 1 July 2021. Please ensure you install this update prior to 1 July 2021 for this change to take effect.

What does this mean? Any pay run with a date paid on or from 1 July 2021 will automatically calculate SG at 10% of OTE. Additionally, on the 1st of July, we will update references to 9.5% on all applicable screens. For more information, including any exclusions, check out this article from the ATO.

 

January 2021

A new work type 'Return to Duty' has been added to this award. The pay conditions rule sets for Clerks (Private Sector) Permanent Day Workers, Clerks (Private Sector) Casual Day Workers, Clerks (Private Sector) Permanent Shiftworkers, and Clerks (Private Sector) Casual Shiftworkers have been updated to ensure when this work type is selected overtime is paid for a minimum of 3 hours

December 2020

The pay condition rule set for Permanent Day Workers has been updated to ensure employees are paid at a rate of 200% of the minimum rate when they have had less than a 10 hour break between shifts

Last Updated: February 2021

1 November

The Award, as part of Group 2 Awards, has been updated to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s National Minimum Wage increase of 1.75% detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2019-20 decision. This also includes updates to expense-related allowances. Information on the Determinations can be found here and here.

These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 November 2020. Please install these updates AFTER you have finalised your last pay run prior to the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 November 2020.

August 2020

The Leave Category Unpaid Pandemic Leave has been corrected to two (2) "Standard Weeks per Year."

The award has been updated to reflect the High Court's decision on the accrual of personal/carer's leave which overturns the decision made by the Full Federal Court of Australia, with personal/carer's leave being calculated on working days not hours. Information on the decision can be found here. As such, we have removed the Personal/Carer's (10 days) Leave Allowance Templates and updated associated Employment Agreements. Please note, this update will not remove any of the above from a business where the award was already installed prior to 25 August 2020. However, any new award installs from 25 August 2020 will not display personal/carer's (10 days) leave details.

30 June 2020

The award pay rate templates have been updated to reflect the Australian Taxation Office's decision to increase the cents per kilometre rate for work-related car expense deductions to 72 cents per kilometre. The new rate applies from the first paid date in the 2020-21 financial year.

June 2020

The pay conditions rule sets for Clerks (Private Sector) Permanent Day Workers, Clerks (Private Sector) Casual Day Workers, Clerks (Private Sector) Permanent Shiftworkers, and Clerks (Private Sector) Casual Shiftworkers have been updated to ensure that when a leave work type is taken, the penalty and overtime rates are not calculated except for the purposes of annual leave taken when calculating the higher of the penalties or loading. The leave taken work type hours will also be included in the period overtime rule calculation. 

May 2020

The award has been updated to reflect the changes made as part of Fair Work's Determination around Clause 17 - Annualised Wage Arrangements. A new employment agreement for Annualised Wage employees has been created which can be assigned to an employee who is paid under the provisions of clause 17. Further information on the employee setup can be found here. 

The award pay conditions rule set for Permanent Day Workers has been amended to ensure overtime is paid on a Sunday

April 2020

The award has been updated to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Decision around flexibility during coronavirus. The new schedule allows employees to take up to two (2) weeks unpaid pandemic leave. A new pay category (Unpaid Pandemic Leave Taken), leave category and work type (Unpaid Pandemic Leave) have been created. Also, the rule sets have been updated, where necessary, to include/exclude the work type and leave category to some pay conditions.  Further, the Leave Allowance Templates have been updated to ensure this new leave category is enabled and is now accessible for employees to take this leave when required. 

The award has been updated to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Decision around flexibility during coronavirus. The determination for the new Schedule I in the modern award allows employees to work from home with an extended span of ordinary hours (6:00am – 11:00pm), which a new rules has been created for. Also, a new work type and tag called Working from Home has been created, to be applied for these working conditions.

A new rule has been created for employees who have agreed to work from home, including part-time and casual employees, where the minimum hours have been reduced from three (3) hours to two (2) hours per shift.

Further, employers can temporarily reduce permanent employees’ hours during this coronavirus period. A new work type has been created - COVID-19 Not Worked, which is to be used for ordinary hours not worked, enabling employees to still accumulate their leave entitlements at their ordinary hours, however, they will not be paid for those hours.

Under this new schedule, employees can take up to twice as much annual leave at a proportionally reduced rate if their employer agrees. The employee's pay rate and leave balance will need to be manually adjusted to half in each pay run for the period of leave.

February 2020

Due to recent changes to the interpretation of personal/carer's leave accrual under the National Employment Standards, updates have been made to the setup of the Award. Further information can be found here.

A new Leave Category called Personal/Carer's (10 days) Leave has been created. Also, new Leave Allowance Templates (LATs) have been created specific to 10 days accrual per year for each state and the LATs have been attached to the current Employment Agreements for selection options for an employee's LAT in their Employee Default Pay Run screen. Any rules impacted by Personal/Carer's Leave have also been updated with the new leave category. 

Instructions on converting the accruals to the 10 day method can be found here. 

30 June 2019

The Award has been updated to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s National Minimum Wage increase of 3% from its Annual Wage Review 2018-19 decision. This also includes updates to expense-related allowances. Information on the Determinations can be found here and here.

These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2019. Please install these updates AFTER you have finalised your last pay run prior to the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2019.

May 2019

Updates to the rule set pay conditions for Clerks (Private Sector) Permanent Day Workers, Clerks (Private Sector) Casual Day Workers, Clerks (Private Sector) Permanent Shiftworkers, and Clerks (Private Sector) Casual Shiftworkers in line with clause 26.1 Meal Breaks to ensure that when an employee works during a meal break they are paid double time or the penalty rate, whichever is greater. 

December 2018

The setup of the Payroll Tax Exempt field in Payroll Settings>Pay Categories was replicating the PAYG Exempt field rather than creating a unique identity; when installed into the business settings. An audit has been carried out across the system and the issue has now been resolved with this update.

August 2018

Allowance rate update for Kilometre Allowance - Car (above and below ATO limit). Further information can be found at ATO.

1 August 2018

The award has been updated to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Decision 4 year review of modern awards. The determination for the new clause in the modern award allowing employees to take unpaid leave to deal with family and domestic violence can be found here. Family and Domestic Violence leave applies from the first full pay period on or after 1 August 2018. Further information can be found at Fair Work.

Employees, including part-time and casual employees are entitled to 5 days unpaid family and domestic violence leave each year of their employment. The 5 days renews each 12 months of their employment but does not accumulate if the leave is not used.

A new leave category has been created - “Family and Domestic Violence Leave” and a new Work Type - “Family and Domestic Violence Leave taken”.  The Leave Allowance Templates and any impacted rule conditions have also been updated

29 June 2018

The Award has been updated to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s national minimum wage increase of 3.5% from its Annual Wage Review 2017-18 decision. This also includes updates to expense-related allowances.

These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2018. Please install these updates AFTER you have finalised your last pay run prior to the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2018.

Additionally, the following changes have been made as part of this update:

1. New laundry allowance pay categories and rule conditions were created to reflect the ATO threshold maximum limits for claiming of laundry (not dry cleaning) for deductible clothing under the Award. Further information can be found in the “Cleaning of Work Clothing” section of this ATO article.
2. The Payment Summary Classification settings for Allowance based pay categories have been updated as per STP requirements.
3. We have created a new rule - 11.6 Apply Overtime - Over Advanced Standard Hours - Part-Time. This rule reflects the following provisions of clause 11.3:
   • the hours worked each day;
   • which days of the week the employee will work;
   • the actual starting and finishing times of each day.

   Previously we could only assess the number of hours worked per week for overtime purposes using the existing Apply Overtime - Over Standard Hours - Part Time rule. Now, however, we can assess the Advanced Standard Work Hours as set up within the employee's Pay Run Defaults screen.

   For example, if an employee's Advanced Standard Work Hours were as follows:

   

   The rule will assess hours as follows:

   1. Any time worked on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday will be deemed overtime;
   2. Any time worked before the start times on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Sunday will be deemed overtime; and
   3. Any time worked after the end times on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Sunday will be deemed overtime.

   N.B:

   (a) This rule only works where Advanced Standard Work Hours have been set up using start and finish times, NOT hours only;

   (b) If no Advanced Standard Work Hours have been set up for a part time employee, then all hours will be deemed overtime.

 

March 2018

1. Fix any auto meal break rules so that they don't apply to leave requests
2. Updated allowance pay categories configuration.  e.g. changed payment summary classifications.
3. Created Kilometre allowance pay categories - above and below ATO limits

February 2018

An update is available which amends the following:

• Ensures that time worked between midnight and 7AM on a Saturday is treated as overtime
• Creates new linked pay categories to deal with "work during a meal break". This had previously been applied as rate multipliers in the rule set. This is in line with Fair Work guidance received on the application of the "work during a meal break" penalty.

August 2017

An update is available which now allows us to consolidate both the progression of pay rates based on both date of birth and anniversary date within the same Employment Agreement. As an end user, this means that once the employment agreement for a level of the award is chosen, it will not need to be changed while the employee remains on that level. The rate of pay will automatically update as needed if the employee has a birthday or accrues another year of service (and the award requires an increased rate).

After applying this update it will be important to follow these steps:

1. Review your employee list and identify employees who are currently assigned as a Level 1 or Level 2 employee (either Day worker or Shiftworker)

2. Go to Employee > Pay run defaults and reassign them a new Employment Agreement. As an example, if the employment agreement was previously called "Day worker Level 1 Yr1" will now simply be called "Day worker Level 1"

The award will now look at both the employees age and the length of their service (with reference to their anniversary date) and automatically update their rate of pay as they progress.