The article provides guidelines about when to use the different work types and tags included as part of the pre-built Legal Services Award 2020 [MA000116] package. For further information about this industry award, refer to Legal Services Award.

Key updates

Select the current financial year tab to see award updates for the 2026/27 financial year, while all previous updates before this time you can find in the historical financial years tab.

July 2026

1st

We have updated the award to reflect the Fair Work Commission's National Minimum Wage increase detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2026 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 2026. 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 2026.

June 2026

10th

We have updated the weekend overtime (OT) payment rules for permanent and casual non-shiftworkers. The following specific calculation rules have been added to the system:

Saturday OT Hours (Casual)
Saturday OT Hours (FT/PT)
Sunday OT Hours (Casual)
Sunday OT Hours (FT/PT)

December 2025

17th

We have updated the 20.2(a) Apply Overtime (FT/PT) – after noon Saturday rule to ensure the correct overtime pay category for Permanent employee is triggered.

October 2025

30th

We have introduced a new suite of configurations for Salaried Employment Agreements to allow the employers to manage the salaried employees, who are under Individual flexibility arrangements, directly within the award instead of having to remove them.

This introduction, which is an enhancement rather than a legislative update requirement, includes the items below if they do not already exist within an award:

Rule Set to disregard timesheets.
Pay Rate Templates.
Employment Agreements for all employee types (full-time, part-time, and casual).

For detailed information on the changes, please refer to our guide here.

We have also renamed all leave allowance templates by adding the award code as a prefix. This ensures each template can be accurately associated with its respective award, particularly in cases where template names are identical.

August 2025

27th

We have updated the rounding method for "Casual Ordinary Hours" pay category to ensure all casual rates are aligned with pay guide rate.

July 2025

1st

We have updated the award to reflect the Fair Work Commission's National Minimum Wage increase detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2024-25 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 2025. 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 2025.

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.

October 2023

18th

We have updated the Uniform Allowance entitlement for Permanent Part-time and Casual employees, where they would receive 1 unit of uniform allowance per week. The Uniform Allowance rule for Full-time employees have also been updated to ensure the correct tax calculations apply.

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 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 of July 2023.

April 2023

5th

We have updated the Legal Services - Permanent and Casual Employees pay conditions 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 Work calculation.

January 2023

31st

We have updated the award to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Decision regarding Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave. You can find further information on what changes we applied to the platform and what you should be aware of within this article. We have created the following new categories:

New Leave Category: Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave.
New Pay Category: Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave.
New Work Type: Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave taken.

We have updated the Leave Allowance Templates to disable the existing unpaid Family and Domestic Violence and we have enabled the new Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave. We also updated any impacted rule conditions.

As part of Fair Work's ruling, an employee must be paid their full pay rate; this includes their base rate plus any incentive-based payments and bonuses, loadings, monetary allowances, overtime or penalty rates, and any other separately identifiable amount.

July 2022

We updated the award to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s National Minimum Wage increase, as detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2021-22 decision. Including 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 2022. Please instal these updates after you have finalised your last pay run before the first full pay period beginning on or after the 1st July 2022.
We have now disabled unpaid pandemic leave as this entitlement has now expired within this award. Additional information can be found on the Fairwork website.

January 2022

We have updated the Unpaid Pandemic Leave pay category, 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

We have updated the award in line with the Australian Tax Office (ATO( requirements for Single Touch Payroll (STP) Phase Two reporting. We are now disaggregating reporting of gross earnings into distinguishable categories. We have also updated the Pay Category payment classifications in line with the ATO specification categories found here.

Installing the pre-built award package

To read further details on how to instal and configure this Pre-built Award Template, please review the following help article. We do not 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 industry award covers employers throughout Australia in the legal services and their employees in the classifications listed in Schedule A—Classifications to the exclusion of any other modern award.

Work types

Work types are a description of the kind of shift you are working on, and you select these 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.

8 Hour Break Between Shifts (By Agreement)

Choose this work type when, by agreement between an employer and individual employee, the ten-hour break may be reduced to a period of no less than eight hours.

Annual Leave Taken

Choose this work type when annual leave is taken.

Call Back

Choose this work type when an employee is recalled to work overtime after leaving the employer’s place of work (whether notified before or after leaving the place of work).

Compassionate Leave Taken

Choose this work type when compassionate leave is taken.

Delayed Meal Break

Choose this work type when an employee is directed by an employer to work in excess of five hours without a meal break.

Family and Domestic Violence Leave Taken

Choose this work type when family and domestic violence leave is taken.

Leave Without Pay Taken

Choose this work type when unpaid leave is taken.

Long Service Leave Taken

Choose this work type when long service leave is taken. Not Relieved for RDO.

Overtime Meal Allowance

Choose this work type when an employee is required to work one hour or more of overtime (Monday to Friday inclusive) and the overtime finishes one and a half hours after the normal finishing time or five hours after the preceding meal break, whichever first occurs, or in the case of a shiftworker when the overtime work on any shift exceeds one hour. Also, when an employee is required to work more than five hours overtime on a Saturday or a Sunday, or more than five hours by a shiftworker on their rostered day off and where an employee could not reasonably return home for a meal within the period allowed.

Overtime Meal Allowance (Subsequent)

Choose this work type when an employee is required to work overtime which exceeds four hours, or to work more than nine hours on Saturday or Sunday and where an employee could not reasonably return home for a meal within the period allowed.

Paid Community Service Leave Taken

Choose this work type when community service leave is taken.

Personal/Carer's Leave Taken

Choose this work type when personal or carer's leave is taken and the business accrues the leave in hours.

Public Holiday Not Worked

Choose this work type when an employee is not required to work on a gazetted public holiday but otherwise would have worked on this day.

RDO Taken

Choose this work type when a rostered day off is taken.

RDO on PH

Choose this work type when a shiftworker's rostered day off coincides with a public holiday and they are to be paid a day’s pay additional to their weekly wage.

RDO on PH + AL Accrual

Choose this work type when a shiftworker's rostered day off coincides with a public holiday and they are to have a day added to their annual leave balance.

Standing By

Choose this work type where an employee is required to hold themselves in readiness to work after ordinary hours.

Study Leave Taken

Choose this work type when study leave is taken.

TIL of Overtime

Choose this work type when the employee elects to accrue time in lieu rather than an overtime payment.

Time in Lieu Taken

Choose this work type when time in lieu is taken.

Travelling Time

Choose this work type when an employee must travel between the employee’s usual place of employment and a temporary location.

Uniform or Special Clothing Allowance

Choose this work type when an employee is required to wear a special uniform, dress, or clothing, and is not supplied and laundered by the employer.

Unpaid Pandemic Leave Taken

Choose this work type when unpaid pandemic leave is taken.

Vehicle Allowance - Car

Choose this work type where an employer requests an employee to use their own motor vehicle to perform work duties. The kilometres travelled should be entered into the ‘units’ field i.e. one unit is equivalent to one kilometre.

Vehicle Allowance - Motorcycle

Choose this work type where an employer requests an employee to use their own motorcycle to perform work duties. The kilometres travelled should be entered into the ‘units’ field i.e. one unit is equivalent to one kilometre.

Working on an RDO

Choose this work type when and employee is required to work on their rostered day off.

Legal Services Award 2020 (MA000116)

Key updates

Installing the pre-built award package

Coverage

Work types

Tags