Nurses Award 2020 (MA000034)

This article provides guidelines about when to use the different work types and tags that are included as part of the pre-built Nurses Award 2010 [MA000034] package. For further information about the Nurses Award, refer to: Nurses Award

 

Key Updates to Award

Last Updated: November 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.

Given the use of shift conditions and work types used in this template, it is recommended that you review the list of work types. They will all be automatically applied to employees by default but if any are ever going to be relevant to your organisation then consider removing the 'auto enable' feature.

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.

Coverage

This award covers employers throughout Australia of employees in the Nurses Award. For further details and any exclusions, please see clause 4 of the award.

Managing progressions through pay points

The award requires progression through pay points to be based on an annual anniversary date for full time employees and 1786 hours for part time and casual employees. We have built automatic progression into the employment agreements for full time employees based on the number of years since the anniversary date. The anniversary date should be populated by the user as the date that the employee started at their particular level.

For Part Time and Casual employees, we are unable to provide an automatic progression into the employment agreements as it is based on number or hours worked at a particular pay point. Instead we have provided an employment agreement for each pay point. To keep track of the hours worked at a particular pay point, we recommend keeping anniversary date populated as the date the employee started the current pay point. With this stored, you can run a timesheet report (Reports > Timesheet Report), setting the 'from' date as the employees anniversary date and the to date as today. This will tally the hours worked between those two dates to give you a gauge as to whether the employee is ready to move on to the next pay point.

Work Types

Work types are a description of the kind of shift you are working, and are selected when you record a timesheet. The following is a list of work types employees can select on their timesheet, and the meaning of each item.

Work Type	Description
ADO taken	Select this work type when an accrued day off is taken . This will also be used when turning an approved leave request into a timesheet entry through employee self service.
Annual Leave taken	Select this work type when annual leave is taken . This will also be used when turning an approved leave request into a timesheet entry through employee self service.
Ceremonial leave taken	Select this work type when ceremonial leave is taken . This will also be used when turning an approved leave request into a timesheet entry through employee self service.
Changeover shift	Select this work type if you are moving from, for example, day work to shift work or afternoon shift to night shift as part of a regular rostered changeover
Compassionate leave taken	Select this work type when compassionate leave is taken . This will also be used when turning an approved leave request into a timesheet entry through employee self service.
Hours worked	Select this work type for all hours worked, unless another work type is more specific
Hours worked on a substituted public holiday	Under this award, public holidays may be substituted for another day by agreement. Choose this work type if that day is a substituted public holiday
Kilometres travelled	Select this work type to enter the mileage travelled in your car for work purposes. 1 unit is equivalent to 1 kilometre
Leave without pay	Select this work type when leave without pay is taken . This will also be used when turning an approved leave request into a timesheet entry through employee self service.
Long-service leave taken	Select this work type when long-service leave is taken . This will also be used when turning an approved leave request into a timesheet entry through employee self service.
On-call	Select this work type if you are on call. This should reflect the start and finish time you are required to be on call, up to 24 hours in duration
On-call on a rostered day off	Select this work type if you are on call and it is normally your rostered day off. This should reflect the start and finish time you are required to be on call, up to 24 hours in duration
Paid community service leave taken	Select this work type when paid community service leave is taken . This will also be used when turning an approved leave request into a timesheet entry through employee self service.
Personal / carer's leave taken	Select this work type when personal / carer's leave is taken . This will also be used when turning an approved leave request into a timesheet entry through employee self service.
Public holiday not worked	Use this work type if you're a permanent employee who has had a day or part of a day off because it is a public holiday
Public holiday on rostered day off	Use this work type if it is a public holiday but you normally are not required to work on that day
Recalled to work when not on call	Use this work type if you are called back to work after leaving for the day, and you were not on call when you left
Recalled to work when on call	Use this work type if you are called back to work after leaving for the day, and you were on call when you left
Remain on duty during meal break	Use this work type when you are required to stay on duty during your rostered meal break. Use this work type for the part of the day until you've had an actual meal break
TIL taken	Select this work type when time in lieu is taken . This will also be used when turning an approved leave request into a timesheet entry through employee self service.
8hr break between shifts	Select this work type when by mutual agreement between the employer and employee,the ten hour rest break may be reduced to eight hours
Available for duty whilst on meal break	Select this work type when you are required by the employer to remain available for duty during a meal break.
Recalled back to duty whilst on meal break	Select this work type when you are recalled back to be on duty during a meal break.
Recalled to work when on call - electronic communication	Select this work type when you are on call and and are required to perform work by the employer via electronic communication.
Recalled to work when not on call - electronic communication	Select this work type when you are not on call and are required to perform work by the employer via electronic communication.

Shift Conditions

Shift Conditions are further detail you can add to a shift where perhaps more than one condition applies to your shift. Shift conditions are selected when you edit a timesheet record, or when clocking on using the ClockMeIn Time and Attendance app. The following is a list of Shift Conditions employees can select on their timesheet, and the meaning of each item.

Shift condition	Description
TIL for overtime shift	Use this shift condition for a shift where you'd like to swap any overtime for time in lieu. If you'd like this as a permanent arrangement, use the employee tag instead and do not use the shift condition
8hr break between shifts	Use this shift condition for a shift where by mutual agreement between the employer and employee,the ten hour rest break may be reduced to eight hours
Forfeit Meal Break	Use this shift condition for a shift where by agreement of an individual employee, an employee who works shifts of six hours or less may forfeit their meal break.

Employee Tags

Employee Tags are specific conditions typically related to the employees agreement. These are often conditions negotiated and agreed between the employer and the employee, or unique characteristics of the employees role.

Employee tag	Description
Uniform provided by employer	Select this tag if the employer provides all uniforms
Uniform provided by employee	Select this tag if the employee provides all or some uniforms
Employee launders own uniform	Select this tag if the employee is responsible for laundering their own uniforms
employee could reasonably return home for a meal	Select this tag if the employee is close enough that they could reasonably return home for a meal during overtime rest periods
ADO	Select this tag to implement an accrued day off system. Using this, an employee working, for example, 5 x 8 hour shifts per week will accrue a day off after 19 shifts
Shiftworker	Select this tag if the employee is principally engaged to be a shift worker
TIL of OT	Select this tag if the employee has agreed to have all overtime hours accrued as time in lieu of overtime
TIL of public holidays	Select this tag if the employee has agreed to have the penalty rate portion of all public holiday hours accrued as time in lieu

 

Key Updates

January 2023

December 2022

We have updated the Other than Registered Nurse level four and five pay condition rule set to make sure that Afternoon Shift penalties trigger correctly as per clause 20.1.

November 2022

The pay condition rule set for Other than registered nurse levels 4 and 5 has been updated to ensure that Afternoon Shift and Night Shift penalties are triggered correctly as per clause 20.1.

 

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.

Unpaid Pandemic Leave has been disabled as this entitlement has now expired within this award. Additional information can be found on the Fairwork website.

January 2022

The Unpaid Pandemic Leave pay category has been updated and counts as service for entitlements under awards and the National Employment Standards.

If any staff have used this category previously, please adjust their Annual, Personal and Long Service Leave balances for any period of unpaid pandemic leave previously taken.

To identify affected employees and enter the leave accrual see: Calculating Missing Leave Accrual for Unpaid Pandemic Leave Taken

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.

September 2021

The clause numbers have been updated in each pay condition rule set to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Decision 4 year review of modern awards. The determination can be found here. The changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after 9 September 2021. Further information can be found at Fair Work.

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.

April 2021

The pay condition rule set for Other than registered nurse levels 4 and 5 has been updated to ensure that Recalled to Work is paid at overtime rates under clause 28.5 (a)

 

February 2021

The pay condition rule set for Other than registered nurse levels 4 and 5 has been updated in line with clause 16.2(b): Laundry Allowance. The per shift allowance has been capped at $1.49 per week in line with the current allowance rate.

 

August 2020

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.

For further information on migrating from daily personal/carers leave accruals to hourly please refer here.

August 2020

The award has been updated to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Decision around flexibility during coronavirus. The new schedule Y allows employees to take up to two (2) weeks paid pandemic leave for each occasion of leave. A new pay category (Paid Pandemic Leave Taken), leave category and work type (Paid 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. 

Under this new schedule full time employees will need to be paid their base pay rate for ordinary hours. The rate for part time staff will be the higher of either their agreed ordinary hours of work or an average of their weekly ordinary hours for the previous 6 weeks

Casual employees who take paid pandemic leave need to be paid an amount based on an average of their weekly pay over the previous 6 weeks. If they’ve been employed for less than 6 weeks, the pay needs to be based on an average of their weekly pay for the time they’ve been employed. The pay rate for casual staff will need to be manually adjusted in each pay run for the period of leave.

1 July 2020

The Award, as part of Group 1 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 July 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 July 2020.

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.

Further, 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.

March 2020

Refresh to Award to capture all previous updates. 

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. 

 

The Other than registered nurse levels 4 and 5 rule set pay conditions have been updated to satisfy clause 21.1 of the Award in relation to ordinary hours of work for full-time employees which can be organised as 38 hours per week, 76 hours per fortnight or 152 hours over 28 days. Also, we have created a rule for ordinary hours of work for part-time employees based on clause 10.3 of the Award, where ordinary hours need to be agreed.