There has been an incredible amount of legislative change relating to employment law so far this year, and there’s more to come! The Fair Work Commission has confirmed amendments to the Professional Employees Award 2020 will take effect this year so let’s take a look at the detail.
Coverage
What the Award actually covers has had a facelift. Employees performing the following can be covered by the Professional Employees Award:
- professional engineering duties
- professional scientific duties
- professional information technology duties
- quality auditing
- professional medical research
The FWC has introduced an amendment which clearly states that employees are only covered by the Award if they are “NOT employed in a wholly or principally managerial position.” This change was made quickly and came into effect from an employee’s first full pay on or after 23 March 2023.
Hours of Work and Overtime
But wait, there’s more.
From the 16th September 2023 The Professional Employees Award now requires that any employee who is not paid at least 25% above the award rate for their classification will be entitled to the following:
- Paid for additional hours worked between 6am and 10pm (Monday to Saturday) at their usual hourly rate OR receive 1:1 time off (1 hour of overtime = 1 hour of paid time off)
- A penalty loading of 25% on their usual hourly rate will apply if the additional hours are worked before 6am or after 10pm Mon-Sat.
- A penalty loading of 50% on their usual hourly rate will apply for any work done on Sunday or a public holiday
- These additional penalty loadings also apply to casual employees, on top of their casual loaded rate
- Employers must keep records of all hours worked in excess of 38 hours per week for employees who are eligible to receive payment for additional hours
Remember – this ONLY applies if the employee is being paid a salary of less than 25% above the relevant classification in the Award.
Employers will be required to keep records of any additional hours worked. Employees who undertake remote work outside of ordinary hours will also have some obligations in terms of record keeping. Ordinarily this ruling applies to employees who are rostered to work these additional hours. We recommend every business having very clear directions or policies in place regarding working additional hours – for example, you may require advance approval to be given, to prevent employees working additional hours because they want to, or in the event of any misunderstanding around working additional hours to meet deadlines.
But like all rules, there is an exemption. For employees who are contractually entitled to a salary exceeding the minimum Award entitlement by 25% or more, overtime, time off in lieu, penalty rates and the record keeping obligations won’t apply.
These changes will come into effect from 16 September 2023.
What to do
If you are working with this Award in your business it is likely you will need to conduct an audit to make sure you know who will be impacted by these changes and assess employment contracts to determine whether or not your offset clauses will be valid. You will also need to ensure your payroll processes are in place for the additional payments as well as for storing the required records.
If you need assistance with assessing the application of the Award and any current employment agreements, please contact the team at HR Staff n’ Stuff as soon as possible.
