Clerks—Private Sector Award
Overview
This award summary provides an overview of some of the key features of the Clerks—Private Sector Award 2020.
This information is current as at July 2022. Awards are updated and you should always refer to a current copy of the award for the most up to date information. A copy of the Clerks—Private Sector Award is available here.
A pay guide summary for the Clerks—Private Sector Award is available here. Pay rates are reviewed annually by the Fair Work Commission. This pay guide is effective from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2022.
To keep across any changes to the Clerks—Private Sector Award, you can register here.
For advice specific to your organisation, please contact your Liquid HR representative, or contact us via enquiries@liquidhr.com.au or 1300 887 458.
Connect with us at our three main offices in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane.
Coverage
The Clerks Private Sector Award covers employers or employees throughout Australia who are wholly or principally engaged in clerical work.
It does not cover employees or employers who are covered by these awards:
- Aged Care Award 2010;
- Airline Operations—Ground Staff Award 2020;
- Airport Employees Award 2020;
- Alpine Resorts Award 2020;
- Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award 2020;
- Banking, Finance and Insurance Award 2020;
- Black Coal Mining Industry Award 2020;
- Business Equipment Award 2020;
- Contract Call Centres Award 2020;
- Educational Services (Post-Secondary Education) Award 2020;
- Educational Services (Schools) General Staff Award 2020;
- Fitness Industry Award 2020;
- General Retail Industry Award 2020;
- Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020;
- Higher Education Industry—General Staff—Award 2020;
- Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020;
- Legal Services Award 2020;
- Market and Social Research Award 2020;
- Rail Industry Award 2020;
- Restaurant Industry Award 2020;
- Sporting Organisations Award 2020;
- Telecommunications Services Award
Types of employment
There are three types of employment:
- Full-time employment
- an employee who is contracted to work 38 hours per week (or an average of)
- Part-time employment
- an employee who is contracts to work less than 38 hours per week (or an average of)
- has a written agreement that includes; a regular pattern of work, ordinary hours and start and finish times
- the agreed regular work pattern the employer does not necessarily have to provide same guaranteed hours each week
- the agreement may be varied in writing by agreement between the employer and employee by giving the employee 7 days’ notice of the
- An employer must not require the employee to work additional hours, however an employee may agree to work additional hours
- An employer must roster a part-time employee on any shift for a minimum of 3 consecutive
- Casual employment
- An employee who is paid by the hour with a 25% loading on the pay rate instead of paid leave entitlements such as sick leave and annual leave
- An employer must pay a casual employee for a minimum of 3 hours’ work on each engagement even if they are rostered to work for fewer than 3 consecutive
Offers and request for casual conversions
As per the NES, a casual employee has the right to request part time or full-time employment if employee has been employed for 12 months and during the last 6 months has worked a regular pattern of hours on an ongoing basis.
The offer by the employer must be in writing within 21 days after the end of their 12-month period. If the employee has worked the equivalent of full-time hours during that period, the offer must be for full time employment. If the employees has worked less than the equivalent of full-time hours during that period, the offer must be part time employment.
The employee must give a response within 21 days of receipt of the offer stating whether they accept or decline. If the employee fails to provide a response by this time, the employee is taken to have declined the offer.
Hours of work
An employee’s maximum number of ordinary hours that can be worked in a week is an average of:
- 38 hours per week over a period of up to 4 weeks; or
- 38 hours per week over a roster period agreed between the employer and the
Ordinary hours may be worked between:
- 00 am and 7.00 pm on Monday to Friday; and
- 00 am and 12.30 pm on Saturday.
By mutual agreement, the spread of ordinary hours in clause may be altered up to one hour ahead or one hour back. between an employer and:
- the majority of employees at the workplace;
- the majority of employees in a discrete section of the workplace; or
- an individual
For example, 8.00 am to 8.00 pm Monday to Friday or 6.00 am to 11.30 am Saturday.
Rostering Arrangements (employees other than shift workers)
An employer may roster employees in such a way that the employees:
- work longer hours on one or more days over a roster cycle as part of their ordinary hours; and
- take a rostered day off at a later
An employee who works on a rostered day off basis on a 20-day roster cycle over a 12-month period is entitled to 12 rostered days off over that period.
The employer must provide the employee with four weeks’ notice of the day the employee will be taking off as a rostered day off.
Breaks (employees other than shiftworkers)
Paid Breaks
An employee who is required to work longer than three, but less than eight ordinary hours is entitled to one 10-minute paid rest break at a time determined by the employer.
An employee who is required to work longer than eight ordinary hours is entitled to two 10-minute paid rest breaks at a time determined by the employer.
An employee who is required to work more than 4 hours overtime on a Saturday morning is entitled to one 10-minute paid rest break at a time determined by the employer.
Unpaid Breaks
An employee who works more than 5 hours per day is entitled to one unpaid 30-to-60-minute meal break, which must be taken during the first 5 hours of work and within 5 hours of resuming work following a meal break.
An employer must compensate an employee who is required to work through their meal break 200% of the minimum hourly rate from the start of the meal break until a meal break is permitted.
Pay Rates
The Clerks Award specifies the minimum weekly and hourly rates of pay, which are applied based on an employee’s classification.
Any service in the classification level, as defined in Schedule A—Classification Structure and Definitions, including administrative and clerical experience with a former employer, counts towards a year of service when calculating years.
Junior employees who are aged 20 and under are eligible for lower pay rates. A pay guide summary for the Clerks—Private Sector Award is available here.
Payment of Wages
Pay period
- The employer may determine the pay period of employees as being either weekly or
- The employer and an individual employee may agree to monthly pay
- If an agreement is made for monthly payment, the payment must be made based on 2 weeks in advance and 2 weeks in
Payment of wages under an averaging system
Employees working regular weekly hours under an averaging system may be paid based on the average number of regular hours worked to prevent changing wage payments.
Payment on Termination of Employment
Employees must be paid within 7 days following their termination of employment, unless they are paid in lieu of notice, in which case payment should be made immediately.
Annualised wage arrangements
The Fair Work Commission introduced new annualised salary provisions into several Modern Awards on March 1, 2020.
When an employer agrees to pay an employee an annual salary that covers all entitlements under the appropriate Modern Award, this is referred to as an annualised wage agreement.
The Fair Work Commission requires employers to maintain accurate records of salary employees’ actual hours worked for a period of seven years.
When an annualised wage is paid, the employer must advise the employee in writing and maintain a record of:
- the annualised wage that is payable
- which of the provisions of this award will be satisfied by payment of the annualised wage;
- the method used to determine the annualised wage, including the specification of each separate component of the annualised wage as well as any overtime or penalty assumptions utilised in the calculation; and
- the outer limit number of ordinary hours which would attract the payment of a penalty rate under the award and the outer limit number of overtime hours which the employee may be required to work in a pay period or roster cycle without being entitled to an amount in excess of the annualised
If in a pay period or roster cycle an employee works any hours in excess of either of the outer limit amounts, such hours will not be covered by the annualised wage and must separately be paid for in accordance with the applicable provisions of this award.
Annualised wage must not disadvantage employees
The annualised wage must not be less than the amount the employee would have received under this award for the work done during the year for which the wage is paid (or, if the employment ceases earlier, over such lesser period as has been worked).
The employer must calculate the amount of remuneration that would have been payable to the employee under the provisions of this award over the relevant period and compare it to the amount of the annualised wage actually paid to the employee every 12 months from the start of the annualised wage arrangement or upon the termination of the employee’s employment. If the later amount is less than the former amount, the employer must pay the employee the difference within 14 days.
The employer must keep a record of each employee subject to an annualised pay arrangement’s starting and finishing times of work, as well as any unpaid breaks taken, for the purpose of conducting the comparison mentioned above. Each pay period or roster cycle, this record must be signed by the employee or recognised as correct in writing (including by electronic means) by the employee.
Allowances
Type
First aid allowance – applies to an employee who is appointed by the employer to undertake first aid duties and possesses current first aid credentials and training.
Higher duties allowance – applies when employee is required to perform any of the duties of a higher classification.
Clothing and footwear allowance – applies when an employee is required to work in conditions damaging to clothing or footwear for the cost of purchasing any uniforms and protective clothing or footwear not supplied or paid for by the employer. The employer must also reimburse an employee who is required to wear a uniform for the cost of purchasing the uniform.
Meal allowance – applies if the employee is required to work overtime of more than 1.5 hours after the employee’s meal. ordinary time of ending work and if the employee was not given at least 24 hours ‘notice of the requirement to work overtime.
If the number of hours worked under a requirement mentioned above exceeds 4 hours of overtime
Vehicle allowance – applies if an employer requires an employee to utilise their own car to perform their duties.
An employer who requires an employee to use a motor vehicle provided by the employer to perform their duties must pay all expenses for the motor vehicle including registration, running costs and maintenance.
Living away from home allowance – applies if:
- The employer requires the employee to work away from their usual location of employment for a period; and
- The employee is required to remain overnight away from their usual place of residence due to the location where they are required to work; and
- The employer does not provide the employee with fares, meals, or accommodation.
Allowance
$14.11 per week.
Minimum rate applicable to the higher level under this award
If the employee is required to launder their uniform, the employer must provide the employee the following allowance:
$3.55 each week for a full-time employee
$0.71 each shift for a part-time or casual employee.
Meal allowance of $16.91; or supply the employee with a further meal allowance of $13.54.
Motor Car – $0.91 per kilometre Motorcycle – $0.31 per kilometre
The maximum allowance payable is for 400 kilometres per week.
The employer must pay the employee the following:
- an allowance to cover all transportation costs to and from the area where the employee is required to work; and
- an allowance to cover all reasonable expenses for meals and accommodation
- ordinary rates of pay for time spent travelling between the employee’s usual place of employment and the temporary location, to a maximum of 8 hours in 24 hours.
Superannuation
Employers must pay a super guarantee on behalf of eligible employees beginning July 1, 2022, regardless of how much they are paid. A rate of 10.5% of an employee’s ordinary earnings must be contributed.
Overtime (employees other than shift workers)
An employer is required to pay an employee at the overtime rate for any hours performed under the employer’s direction if:
- It exceeds the usual weekly working hours, such as working more than 38 hours per week for a full-time employee or more than part-time employees’ usual work
- It exceeds 10 ordinary hours in a single day. This excludes unpaid meal
- An employee works on a scheduled day off that is not banked or substituted for another working day. The below chart shows how the overtime rates vary according on when the overtime is worked
An employer must pay an employee a minimum of 3 hours at overtime rates for work performed on a Saturday if the employee has worked 38 hours or more from Monday through Friday.
An employee required to work overtime hours on a Sunday is entitled to a minimum of 4 hours ‘pay (inclusive of ordinary hours worked).
Employees must have at least 10 consecutive hours off duty between hours worked on successive days when overtime is needed to be done.
If, at the request of the employer, an employee continues or resumes working standard hours without having taken at least 10 consecutive hours off duty, then the following will apply
- Until the employee is released from duty, the employer must pay the employee at 200% of the employee’s minimum hourly wage; and
- the employer must release the employee from duty until the employee has had 10 consecutive hours off duty; and
- The employee should not lose any pay for any ordinary hours since the employer must provide at least 10 consecutive hours of
Overtime rates (Shift workers)
An employer is required to pay an employee on shift work overtime rates at the below applicable percentage.
An employer must pay an employee for a minimum of 4 hours at the overtime rate specified above if:
- The employee works overtime on a Saturday, Sunday or Public Holiday
- The employee is working on a day off
- The work is outside their ordinary start and finish times
Employees must have at least 8 consecutive hours off duty between hours worked on consecutive days when overtime is required.
If, at the request of the employer, an employee continues or resumes working standard hours without having taken at least 8 consecutive hours off duty, then the following will apply
- Until the employee is released from duty, the employer must pay the employee at 200% of the employee’s minimum hourly wage; and
- the employer must release the employee from duty until the employee has had 10 consecutive hours off duty: and
- The employee should not lose any pay for any ordinary hours since the employer must provide at least 8 consecutive hours of
Time Off Instead of Overtime Payment (All Employees)
An employee and employer may agree in writing to the employee taking time off instead of being paid for a specific amount of overtime performed by the employee. For example, an employee working 2 hours of overtime is entitled to taking 2 hours of time off.
Any amount of overtime performed by an employee in a certain pay period that is to be taken as time off rather than paid for by the employee must be the subject of a separate agreement which includes
- The amount of overtime hours worked and the dates on which they were
- Employee and employer agree that time off will be taken instead of being paid for overtime.
- Instead of taking time off, the employee might seek to be paid overtime at any
- The payment must be made during the next upcoming pay period from the moment the request is
Penalty Rates (for employees other than shift workers)
Penalty Rates (shift workers)
An employer must pay an employee working regular hours on shifts the applicable percentage given in the table below.
The exceptions to above apply when:
- An employee who begins an ordinary shift between 11 p.m. and midnight on a Sunday or public holiday and works into the next non-public holiday day is not entitled to the Sunday or public holiday penalty rate for the period worked on that Sunday or public holiday; but,
- An employee who begins an ordinary shift between 11 p.m. and midnight on the day before a Sunday or public holiday and works that day is entitled to the Sunday or public holiday penalty rate for the hours
Annual Leave
According to the Award, annual leave is as specified in the National Employment Standards, meaning that permanent workers are entitled to four weeks of annual leave (pro-rata for part-time employees).
Shift workers who are frequently rostered to work on Sundays and public holidays at a business whose shifts are constantly rostered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week are entitled to an additional week of paid annual leave.
Annual Leave Loading
When an employee takes paid time off, the Clerks Private Sector Award applies a 17.5% leave loading rate on top of their annual leave.
Employees must be paid the greater of the following amounts:
- An annual leave loading of 17.5% of their regular pay rate; or
- the weekend and shift penalties the employee would have earned if they hadn’t been on leave during that
Alternative Annual Leave Arrangements
Annual leave in advance – An employer and employee may agree in writing to the employee taking a period of paid annual leave before the employee has accrued an entitlement to the leave. The agreement must include the amount the leave to be taken and the date the leave will commence. The agreement will need to be signed by both parties.
Excessive leave accruals – An employee has an excessive leave accrual if the employee has accrued more than 8 weeks ‘paid annual leave (or 10 weeks ‘paid annual leave for a shift worker). If an employee has an excessive amount of leave accrued, the employer and employee must discuss ways to decrease or eliminate the excessive leave accrual.
If an employer has truly attempted to reach an agreement with an employee but is unable to do so (for example, because the employee refuses to confer), the employer may instruct the employee to take one or more periods of paid annual leave in writing. The below rules have to be followed:
- When all other paid annual leave agreements made by the employer and employee are considered, the employee’s remaining accrued entitlement to paid annual leave cannot be less than 6
- Employees cannot be required to take less than one week of annual
- The employer must not require the employee to take paid annual leave that begins less than 8 weeks or ends more than 12 months after the directive is
Cashing out of annual leave – An employer and an employee may agree in writing to the cashing out of a particular amount of accrued paid annual leave by the employee. The agreement must:
- State the amount of leave to be cashed out and the payment to be made to the employee for
- The date on which the payment is to be
- Be signed by the employer and employee
- Not be less than the amount that would have been payable had the employee taken the leave at the time the payment is made
- Not result in the employee’s remaining accrued entitlement to paid annual leave being less than 4
Close Down
- An employer may require an employee to take annual leave as part of a close-down of its operations, by giving at least 4 weeks‘
Personal/carer’s leave and Compassionate leave
Personal/carer’s leave and compassionate leave are provided for in the NES.
Parental leave and related entitlements
Parental leave and related entitlements are provided for in the NES.
Public holidays
Public holidays entitlements are provided for in the NES. Where an employee works on a public holiday, they will be paid in accordance with Penalty rates—employees other than shift workers table and Penalty rates for shift work table mentioned above.
Employees who must work on a public holiday may substitute an alternate day off if both the employer and the employee agree in writing.
Consultation and Dispute Resolution
If an employer decides to make significant changes in production, changes to rosters or hours of work, organisation, structure, or technology that are likely to have a significant impact on employees, the company must:
- give notice of the changes to all employees who may be affected by
- discuss with affected employees the introduction of the changes, their likely effect and measures to avoid or reduce the adverse effects of the changes
Termination of Employment
The NES sets out requirements for notice of termination by an employer
An employee must give the employer notice of termination as per below table.
The notice of termination required of an employee is the same as that required of an employer, with the exception that the employee is not required to provide further notice depending on the employee’s age.
If an employee’s age is 18 or above and they fail to provide the required period of notice, the employer may deduct an amount equal to one week’s earnings from the employee’s wages under this award.
Redundancy
Redundancy pay is provided for in the NES
If the organisation has 15 or more employees, permanent employees are entitled to the following redundancy payment if they are made redundant. Employers with less than 15 workers are exempt from making redundancy payments:
Additional Policies
Additional HR policies are available here.
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