Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Practitioners and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services Award 2020 (MA000115)

This article provides guidelines about when to use the different work types and tags that are included as part of the pre-built Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Practitioners and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services Award 2020 award package. For further information about this industry award, refer to Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services Award

Key Updates to Award
Last Updated: January 2022

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

Annual Leave
Choose this work type when annual leave is taken as per clause 26 of the Award

Ceremonial Leave
Choose this work type when ceremonial leave is taken as per clause 30 of the Award

Community Service Leave
Choose this work type when community service leave is taken as per clause 28 of the Award

Compassionate Leave
Choose this work type when compassionate leave is taken as per clause 27 of the Award

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

Meal Allowance
An employee required to work more than 1 hour after their usual finishing time or, in the case of shiftworkers, more than 1 hour of overtime and who has not been supplied with a meal should add 1 unit of this allowance to their shift. Refer to clause 15.6 (a)(i) of the Award.

Meal Allowance (Over 4 OT hours)
An employee required to work more than 4 hours after their usual finishing time or, in the case of shiftworkers, more than 4 hours of overtime and who has not been supplied with a meal should add 1 unit of this allowance to their shift. Refer to clause 15.6 (a)(ii) of the Award.

Nauseous Work Allowance

Select this work type when an employee is engaged in handling linen of a nauseous nature other than linen sealed in airtight containers and/or for work which is of an unusually dirty or offensive nature.

No Meal Break
Half hour unpaid meal breaks are automatically added 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.

On Call Allowance
Select this work type where an employee is required, and rostered by the employer to remain on call and in readiness to be recalled to work after ordinary working hours. This allowance is payable in respect of any 24 hour period or part thereof during which the employee is on call during an off duty period. Refer to clause 15.4 (a) of the Award.

On Call Allowance - Public Holiday
Select this work type where an employee is required, and rostered by the employer to remain on call and in readiness to be recalled to work after ordinary working hours on a public holiday. This allowance is payable in respect of any 24 hour period or part thereof during which the employee is on call during an off duty period. Refer to clause 15.4 (b) of the Award.

Personal/Carer's Leave
Choose this work type when personal or carer's leave is taken as per clause 27 of the Award

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.

Recalled to Work (when on call)
Choose this work type when an employee, who is on call, is recalled for duty for any period during an off duty period. Refer to clause 20.7 (b) of the Award.

Recalled to Work OT (Off Duty)
Choose this work type when an employee is recalled to work overtime during an off duty period, which is not continuous with the next succeeding rostered period of duty. Refer to clause 20.7 (d) of the Award.

Time in Lieu 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 24.6 of the Award.

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

Unpaid Leave
Choose this work type when unpaid leave is taken

Vehicle Allowance
Where an employee is required and authorised to use their own motor vehicle in the course of their duties, this work type should be used. The kilometres travelled should be entered into the 'units' field. Refer to clause 15.5 (a) of the Award.

Tags

The following tags are available for application to employees under the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services Award.

Uniform Allowance
Assign this tag to an employee who is required by the employer to wear any special clothing that is not provided by the employer. The employee will be paid a daily allowance to compensate the employee for providing their own uniforms. Refer to clause 15.3 (c) of the Award.

Laundry Allowance
Assign this tag to an employee where their uniform is not laundered at the expense of the employer. The employee will be paid a daily allowance to compensate the employee for having to launder the uniform at their own expense. Refer to clause 15.3 (d) of the Award.

Bilingual Level 1
Assign this tag to an employee who is competently bilingual and who is regularly required throughout the performance of their duties to use one or more languages. Such employee will be paid a weekly allowance in recognition of having to use this skill. A Level 1 qualification is an elementary level. This level of accreditation is appropriate for employees who are capable of using a minimal knowledge of language for the purpose of simple communication. Refer to clause 15.1 of the Award.

Bilingual Level 2
Assign this tag to an employee who is competently bilingual and who is regularly required throughout the performance of their duties to use one or more languages. Such employee will be paid a weekly allowance in recognition of having to use this skill. A Level 2 qualification represents a level of ability for the ordinary purposes of general business, conversation, reading and writing. Refer to clause 15.1 of the Award.

Medical Administration Allowance

Assign this tag to employees who are qualified and permitted under law to administer medications in the performance of their duties.

Permanent Night Shift
Assign this tag to a shiftworker who is required to work ordinary hours continuously for a period exceeding four weeks on a shift wholly within the hours of 7pm and 7am. Refer to clause 25.2 of the Award.

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 24.6 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). 

Key Updates

 July 2024

1st

We have updated the award to reflect the Fair Work Commission's National Minimum Wage increase detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2023-24 decision and also includes updates to expense-related allowances. You can find more information on the Determinations here and here.

These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after the 1st July 2024. Please install these updates after you have finalised your last pay run before the first full pay period beginning on or after the 1st July 2024.

We have also updated the "Community Service Leave Taken" pay category, where it does not accrue super but accrues leave. The payment classification has also been updated in line with the ATO specification categories. 

The ACCHS Casual Shift Worker rule set has been updated to include a rule for Paid Family Domestic Violence Leave. 

March 2024

6th

We have updated the Rest period after overtime rule in line with clause 20.5 across all the rulesets of the award. Consequently, a new work type named "No Rest Period After Overtime" has been introduced. Please utilise this work type in cases where the employee has not met the required 10 consecutive hours of rest break due to excessive overtime.

August 2023

1st

From 1 August, all employees are entitled to 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave each year. The (Unpaid) Family and Domestic Violence Leave configuration settings under awards have been updated - the leave category is disabled from award leave allowance templates, and the work type is not enabled automatically for all employees. Please ensure that employees no longer use the unpaid leave category or work type.

July 2023

1st

We have updated the award to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s National Minimum Wage increase detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2022-23 decision and also includes updates to expense-related allowances. You can find information on the Determinations here and here. These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after the 1st July 2023.

Please install these updates after you have finalised your last pay run before the first full pay period beginning on or after the 1st July 2023. We have also updated the Community Service Leave category to make sure it pays at base rate.

April 2023

5th

We have updated the ACCHS Permanent Shift Worker pay condition rule set to reflect a new enhancement which will calculate the higher of annual leave loading or penalties based on the entire leave period, aligning with the Fair Works calculation.

18th

We have updated the award to include clause 20.5 Rest period after overtime. In line with the update, we have added a new pay category Less than 10 hours of break for both permanent, and casual employees.

January 2023

December 2022

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

20 July 2022

Unpaid Pandemic Leavehas been enabled as this entitlement has now been reinserted within this award and is available for eligible employees from 15 July 2022 until 31 December 2022. Additional information can be found on the Fairwork website.

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.

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.

August 2021

A number of changes have been made to align the system with all provisions in clause 20.7 of the award. This clause relates to on-call and recall.

The existing work type Recalled to Work has been renamed to Recalled to Work (when on call). This refers to the scenario in clause 20.7(b) where an employee, who is on call, is recalled for duty for any period during an off duty period. A new work type, Recalled to Work OT (Off Duty), has been created to reflect the scenario in 20.7(d) where an employee is recalled to work overtime during an off duty period which is not continuous with the next succeeding rostered period of duty.

New recall pay categories have been added for both permanent and casual employees in line with the Fair Work pay guide. The new pay categories are Recall (when on call) - less than 12hrs after start of last normal shift, Recall (when on call) - more than 12hrs after start of last normal shift, Recall (when on call) - public holiday, Recall (during off duty period) first 2 hours and Recall (during off duty period) after 2 hours.

The pay condition rule sets ACCHS Permanent Day Worker, ACCHS Permanent Shift Worker, ACCHS Casual Day Worker, and ACCHS Casual Shift Worker have been updated to reflect Clause 20.7(b)(i) and (ii) of the Award. When the work type Recalled to Duty (when on call) is selected, the employee is paid the applicable “Recall (when on call)” pay categories. For days that are not public holidays, employees will receive 150% of the minimum hourly rate if the work is within the spread of 12 hours from the commencement of the last period of ordinary duty and 200% of the minimum hourly rate if the work is outside the spread of 12 hours from the commencement of the last period of ordinary duty.

The pay condition rule sets ACCHS Permanent Day Worker, ACCHS Permanent Shift Worker, ACCHS Casual Day Worker, and ACCHS Casual Shift Worker have also been updated to reflect Clause 20.7(d) of the Award. When the work type Recalled to Work OT (Off Duty) is selected, a minimum engagement of 3 hours is applied and the employee is paid the applicable “Recall (during off duty period)” pay categories. This time is paid as overtime; 150% of the minimum hourly rate for the first 2 hours and 200% of the minimum hourly rate thereafter.

 

Updates have been made to the Unpaid Pandemic Leave allowance Templates so that the balance is displayed in weeks instead of hours in line with the Fair Work Commission's guidelines.
Once the award update is installed, all employee’s Unpaid Pandemic leave balances will be displayed in weeks not hours. This will mean that an employee’s balance may now show as 76 weeks. In order to correct the balance please see How to Fix Unpaid Pandemic Leave Balance Data.

July 2021

The pay condition rule sets ACCHS Permanent Day Worker, ACCHS Permanent Shift Worker, ACCHS Casual Day Worker, and ACCHS Casual Shift Worker have been updated to ensure that part-time employees will be paid overtime in excess of their standard hours set in their Pay Run Defaults page, and ensuring that leave work types are excluded from payment on applicable allowances and overtime rules. 

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.

The pay condition rule sets for Permanent, Permanent - Shiftworkers, Casual, and Casual - Shiftworkers have been updated in line with clause 36 Public Holidays to include the penalty rate for all responsibilities and business scenarios and appropriate minimum engagements. A new tag has been created for inserters and publishing employees working in a non-daily newspaper office. These tags will need to be selected to ensure the correct penalty and minimum engagement hours are applied for these workers.

Updates were made to the Employment agreements for the Aboriginal Health Worker (Shiftworker) Grade 3 - Level 1 - Casual, Administrative (Shiftworker) Grade 3 - Level 2 – Full time, and Administrative (Shiftworker) Grade 3 - Level 3 – Part-time to add the Western Australian Leave Allowance Templates. 

Please install update to ensure that all pay categories are now captured with the SG increase from 9.5% to 10%. Further information can be found here around incorrect SG rate.

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

The award has been varied as part of the Fair Work Commission's four yearly review of modern awards. The determination comes into operation on 1 January 2021. In accordance with s.165(3) of the Fair Work Act 2009, this determination does not take effect in relation to a particular employee until the start of the employee's first full pay period that starts on or after 1 January 2021.

In this update the award has been renamed to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Practitioners and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services Award 2020.

A new tag Medication Administration Allowance has been added for employees who are qualified and permitted under law to administer medications in the performance of their duties. A new work type for Nauseous Work Allowance has also been added for when an employee is engaged in handling linen of a nauseous nature other than linen sealed in airtight containers and/or for work which is of an unusually dirty or offensive nature. The pay condition rule sets ACCHS Permanent Day Worker, ACCHS Permanent Shift Worker, ACCHS Casual Day Worker, ACCHS Casual Shift Worker have been updated to incorporate these allowances.
Employment Agreements and Pay Rate Templates for Health Workers have been updated. The new classification structure divides the existing Grade 1 entry-level classification into two grades. There are now five grades instead of four. Please make sure after installing this update your employees are on the correct grade.
For further information you can read the award determination here.

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.

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.

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.

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.

1st 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.

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. The Payment Summary Classification settings for Allowance based pay categories have been updated as per STP requirements.
2. We have created a new rule - 24.2 Apply Overtime - Over Advanced Standard Hours - Part-Time. This rule reflects the following provisions of clause 10.3(b):

• 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