This article provides a comprehensive overview of the changes made to the Fast Food Industry Award (MA000003) and Restaurant Industry Award (MA000119) to ensure compliance with relevant Fair Work Australia clauses.
If you have any customised rules within the award, it is important to note:
- Customised rules will not automatically update when you apply the award updates to your system.
- Review and understand any changes made to the award rules.
- Verify that your customised rules are not affected by these changes. If the changes do impact your customised rules, you will need to update them manually.
- To edit or add customised rules, award rules must first be unlocked. For step-by-step instructions, please refer to this article.
What's new
Below is a summary of the implemented updates and guidance for their application.
Clause 21 states that Permanent (Full time & Part time) and Casual employees will be paid different Sunday penalties depending on classification level:
Clause 24, table 8 states that Casual employees will be paid different Sunday penalty depending on classification level:
Ruleset changes
Fast food award
The update to introduce multiple linked pay categories and tags for Sunday work is not applying correctly when an employee works at a higher classification level. As a result, the employee is paid based on the penalty associated with the tag used. Furthermore, clients with custom rules still require the use of the stand-alone pay category.
To address this, we are offering two options to manage different Sunday penalty rate scenarios.
When no tag is assigned and a higher classification level is recorded on timesheet, employee will be paid using the stand-alone pay category “Sunday” we have populated on all pay rate templates.
Important
If employee is paid above the award, the stand-alone "Sunday" pay category must be manually updated. See instructions here.
Scenario: Level 1 employee recorded a higher classification Level 3 on first Sunday worked Employee received Level 3 Sunday rate:
Employees will receive the correct Sunday penalty rates based on their tags hence, we added new tag “Level 2 and Level 3 Employees” for employees classified as Level 2 and above.
Important
If employee is paid above the award, only base rate needs to be updated. Also, the Fast Food award does not include a higher duty clause. If employees will perform higher duty, a custom higher duty rule is required OR you may opt to use the best option “Option 1: No Tag Assigned” as it eliminates the need to create a separate higher duty rule.
Scenario: Employee is a Level 1 employee who is tagged as tag “Level 1 Employees”
Employee received Casual Sunday - Level 1 rate:
Restaurant award
The update to introduce multiple linked pay categories and tags for Sunday work made to accommodate scenarios where employees are paid above the award rate. However, some organisations with custom rules still require the use of the stand-alone pay category.
To address this, we are offering two options to manage different Sunday penalty rate scenarios.
When no tag is assigned and a higher classification level is recorded on timesheet, employee will be paid using the stand-alone pay categories including “Casual - Sunday" and "Casual - No break Sunday" we populated on casual pay rate templates.
Important
If an employee is paid above the award, these stand-alone pay categories must be manually populated for each employee. See instructions here.
Scenario: Level 1 employee recorded a higher classification Level 4 on second Sunday worked
-
- Employee received Level 4 Sunday rate
- Employee received Level 4 Sunday rate
Employees will receive the correct Sunday penalty rates based on their tags hence, we added new “Casual L3 and above” tag for employees classified as Level 3 and above.
Important
- If employee is paid above the award, only base rate needs to be updated.
- For Introductory and Level 1 employees tagged as Casual Intro to L2 who are performing duties from Level 1 to Level 2 on Sundays, use the “Intro - L2 Sunday higher duties” work type.
- All employees regardless of tags who perform higher duties from Level 3 and above do not require a work type for Sunday worked.
Scenario:
- Level 1 employee who is tagged as tag “Casual Intro to L2” performed Level 2 duties on first Sunday
- Employee received “Casual- Sunday Intro to L2” rate from Level 2 pay rate template
- Level 1 employee who is tagged as “Casual Intro to L2” performed Level 4 duties on second Sunday
- Employee received “Casual- Sunday L3 to L6” rate from Level 4 pay rate template.
- Employee received “Casual- Sunday L3 to L6” rate from Level 4 pay rate template.