17th

We’ve made the following changes to the award:

• The following allowances are now paid on a weekly basis. The allowance rates within the corresponding pay rate templates have been adjusted to reflect the weekly amounts as specified in the latest pay guide. The associated work types for these allowances have also been updated to be entered as hourly instead of units.
• First Aid Allowance (1-50 emp)
• First Aid Allowance (51+ emp)
• Head of Table Allowance
• Head of Table (Order Tailoring or Dress Making) Allowance
• Blending Allowance
• Unwashed Rags Allowance
• Waste Room - Willey Hands Allowance
• Flax Scutcher Allowance
• Dye house-bleach house Allowance
• Shoddy-shaking Machine allowance
• Size Troughs – Sewing Threads Allowance
• The following unused work types with an asterisk (*) to prevent the further use:
  • *Family and Domestic Violence Leave
  • *Personal Carer’s Leave 10 days
  • *Unpaid Pandemic Leave
• The Flax Scutcher Allowance rule under the Permanent Day Workers rule set has been updated to correctly reference the Operating Flax Scutcher tag. Clients must ensure this correct tag is used for the relevant rule to be triggered. Further details on the tags are available in the Tags section.

6th

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:

• Pay Categories (Salary and Salary - Public Holiday Not Worked).
• Leave Allowance Templates for “No loading” and “With loading”.
• 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.

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.

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. 

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

Per clause 22.2(b) Leading hand allowance and 24.2(f) Dust allowance, these allowances are paid as weekly allowances, hence the rules have been updated accordingly to pay as 1 unit per week.

"Goggles/Mask Allowance" within the Permanent Day Workers rule set has also been updated so it is not paid as all-purpose allowances as indicated in the pay guide.

28th

We have introduced new work types such as Personal Carer's Leave Taken, Leave without Pay Taken, Compassionate Leave Taken, Paid Community Service Leave Taken, Long Service Leave Taken, and Time in Lieu Taken to the award.

13th

We amended the Grade 1 Employment Agreements for both Storeworker and Warehouse classifications to correct the pay progression.

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.

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.

The award has been updated to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s national minimum wage increase ‌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 1st July 2022. Please install these updates after you have finalised your last pay run before the first full pay period beginning on or after 1st July 2022.

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

The penalty loading has been updated for the pay category Night Shift for permanent staff.

All rule sets have been updated to remove the rule Automatic Meal Break - Overtime Break. This rule deducted an additional meal break when more than 10 hours and 30 minutes were worked and applied one unit of Overtime Meal Allowance. The Permanent Shiftworker and Casual Day Worker rule sets have also been updated to remove the rule Overtime Meal Allowance. A new rule has been added to all rulesets called Overtime Meal Allowance - Stop Processing. Following this update, in order to apply the overtime meal allowance to an employee's pay, an additional timesheet is to be lodged with the work type Overtime Meal Allowance.

An update has been made to Unpaid Pandemic Leave to ensure leave is accrued when this leave type is taken. To identify affected employees and enter the leave accrual see: Calculating Missing Leave Accrual for Unpaid Pandemic Leave Taken

The rule set Permanent Shiftworker has been updated to ensure the entitlement for five weeks annual leave is only accrued for employees with the tag 7-Day Shiftworker.

The rule set Permanent Shiftworker has also been updated to ensure the correct overtime pay categories are applied.

All rule sets have been updated to ensure that overtime is paid when an employee works through a meal break per clause 18.1b of the award. New pay categories have been created for both Casual and Permanent employees, including No Meal Break + 50%, No Meal Break + 100% and No Meal Break + 150%. A new work type has also been created called No Meal Break (Mechanical Breakdown). This work type is to be selected when a maintenance employee is required to work through a meal break to rectify a mechanical breakdown.

An update has been made to the Permanent Shiftworker and Casual Shiftworker rule sets to ensure overtime worked on a public holiday by a continuous shiftworker is paid at the correct rate.

The award has been updated in line with the ATO's requirements for STP Phase 2 reporting. The reporting of gross earnings is 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.

The award name has been updated to "Textile, Clothing, Footwear and Associated Industries Award 2020 (MA000017)" to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Commision 4-year review of modern awards.

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 employees' FDV leave balances will be displayed in days, not hours. This will mean that an employee’s balance may now show as 38 days. For further instruction on how to correct the balance, please see How to Fix Family & Domestic Violence Leave Balance Data.

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.

The award, as part of Group 2 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 November 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 November 2020.

The award has been updated to reflect the High Court of Australia'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.

The award has been updated to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Commission decision around flexibility during coronavirus. The new schedule allows employees to take up to two (2) weeks of 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.

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.

The Casual Ordinary Hours linked pay categories have been updated to reflect the casual loading penalty associated with each of the pay categories for casual employees. 

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.

The rule set for Permanent Day Workers; Public Holiday rule has been updated to reflect the correct rates of pay when an employee works ordinary hours and when employee works on a public holiday.  

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 platform and the issue has now been resolved with this update.

The award has been updated to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Commision 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 Commission.

Employees, including part-time and casual employees, are entitled to 5 days of unpaid family and domestic violence leave each year of their employment. The 5-day entitlement renews each 12 months of 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.

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 classification settings for allowance-based pay categories have been updated as per STP requirements.
2. We have created a new rule - 10.3(g) Apply Overtime - Over Advanced Standard Hours - Part-Time. This rule reflects the following provisions of clause 10.3(g):

• 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.

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 classifications.