The article provides guidelines about when to use the different work types and tags that are included as part of the pre-built Children's Services award packages. For further information about the children's services award, refer to Children Services Award.
Key updates
Select the current financial year tab to see award updates for the 2024/25 financial year, while all previous updates before this time you can find in the historical financial years tab.
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 but accrues leave. The payment classification has also been updated in line with the ATO specification categories.
All rule sets has been updated to include a rule for Paid Family Domestic Violence Leave.
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.
11th
We have updated the rate for Educational leader allowance.
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.We have also updated the Community Service Leave category to make sure it pays at base rate.
2nd
We have updated the award to make sure that Qualifications Allowance as per clause 15.6 will apply correctly when you assign the Qualifications Allowance tag to an employee.
31st
We have updated the award to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Decision regarding Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave. Further information on what changes we have applied to the platform and what you should be aware of you can find 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, you must pay employees 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.
We have updated the award to reflect the changes to the educational leader allowance, which needs paying per day as per clause 19.4 in the award. You can pay for it through a work type. We have also updated the award to reflect the changes to the educational leader allowance, which you need to pay per day as per clause 19.4 in the award. You can pay for this through a work type or tag.
There is currently a platform limitation when an employee is on leave for the first part of a shift, the allowance will not trigger. You will need to manually apply it in the pay run. There is also currently another platform limitation when an employee is on leave for the first part of a shift, the allowance will not trigger. You will also need to manually apply this to pay run.
We have updated the award to reflect the recent Fair Work Commission Determination to add Educational Leader Allowance effective from the first full pay period starting on or after 1st November 2022. We have added a new Educational Leader Allowance tag and work type to the platform. You can find further information under the work types and tags section.
We have updated all rule sets to reflect this change including the:
- Children's services permanent (non-shift workers).
- Children's services casual (non-shift workers).
- Children's services permanent (shift workers).
- Children's services casual (shift workers).
We have updated the award to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s National Minimum Wage increase detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2021-22 decision. It also 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 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. We have also disabled Unpaid Pandemic Leave as this entitlement has now expired within this award. You can find additional information on the Fairwork website.
We have updated all rulesets to make sure the two Vehicle Allowance pay categories for both up to and above Australian Tax Office (ATO) limit apply when you use the Vehicle Allowance work type.
We have updated the Unpaid Pandemic Leave pay category, and it now 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.
We have updated the Award in line with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) requirements for Single Touch Payroll (STP) Phase two reporting. We are disaggregating the 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.
We have updated the Unpaid Pandemic Leave allowance Templates so that the balance displays in weeks instead of hours in line with the Fair Work Commission guidelines. Once you install the award update, all employees' Unpaid Pandemic leave balances will display in weeks, not hours. It will mean that an employee’s balance may now show as 76 weeks.
We have updated the pay rate for Broken Shift Allowance as per the Fair Work pay guide from 1st July 2021. We have also updated the Award to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s National Minimum Wage increase of 2.5% detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2020-21 decision. It also 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 1st July 2021. Please install these updates after you have finalised your last pay run before the first full pay period beginning on or after 1st July 2021.
We have also made updates to the Leave Category Family Domestic Violence (FDV) Leave, so that the balance displays in days instead of hours in line with the National Employment Standards. Once you install the award update, all employees' FDV leave balances will display in days, not hours. It will mean that an employee’s balance may now show as 38 days.
We have made this update to make sure that any new installs of this award conducted since 1st July now capture the SG increase from 9.5% to 10% for all pay categories. If you have installed this award between 1st July 2021 to 8th July 2021 for the first time, please make sure you select the No option to the Preserve Custom Pay Categories question. If you were using this award before 1st July 2021, then you do not need to select the No option.
We have updated the pay condition rule sets for Children's Services Permanent (Non-shiftworkers), Children's Services Casual (Non-shiftworkers), Children's Services Permanent (Shiftworkers), and Children's Services Casual (Shiftworkers) in line with the Broken Shift Allowance clause 15.1, which will exclude leave shifts from being paid the allowance.
We have updated the Time in Lieu of Overtime work type to make sure that we exclude any time allocated to this work type from payment of ordinary hours. We have also updated the pay conditions rule set for permanent non-shift workers to make sure the minimum engagement of two hours is only paid for part-time employees.
We have amended the pay conditions rule sets for permanent shift workers, and non-shift workers to exclude leave taken from the part-time minimum engagement of two hours.
We have updated thaward to reflect the High Court'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 calculated on working days, not hours. You can find Information on the decision 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 they installed the award before 25th August 2020. However, any new award installs from 25th August 2020 will not display personal/carer's (10 days) leave details.
We have updated the pay rates for Children’s Services Employees level 2.1 on commencement 19+ years. We have updated the Award, as part of Group One Awards, to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s National Minimum Wage increase of 1.75% detailed in the Annual Wage Review 2019-20 decision. It also 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 1st July 2020. Please install these updates after you have finalised your last pay run before the first full pay period beginning on or after 1st July 2020.
We have updated the award to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Decision around flexibility during coronavirus. The new schedule allows employees to take up to two weeks of unpaid pandemic leave. We have created a new Unpaid Pandemic Leave Taken pay category,, leave category, and Unpaid Pandemic Leave work type.
We have updated the rule sets, where necessary, to include/exclude the work type and leave category to some pay conditions. Further, we have updated the Leave Allowance Templates to make sure we enable this new leave category 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. You will need to manually adjust the employee's pay rate and leave balance 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, we have made updates to the setup of the Award. It includes creating a new Leave Category called Personal/Carer's (10 days) Leave. Also, we created a new Leave Allowance Templates (LATs) specific to 10 days accrual per year for each state. Lastly, we have updated any rules impacted by Personal/Carer's Leave with the new leave category.
We have updated the award to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s National Minimum Wage increase of 3% from its Annual Wage Review 2018-19 decision. It also 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 1st July 2019. Please install these updates after you have finalised your last pay run before the first full pay period beginning on or after 1st July 2019.
The setup of the Payroll Tax Exempt field on Payroll Settings Pay Categories page was replicating the PAYG Exempt field rather than creating a unique identity; when installed into the business settings. We have carried out an audit across the platform and have now resolved the issue with this update.
We updated the permanent and casual shift worker and non-shiftworker CSE 19 yrs and 20+ yrs pay rate templates to reflect correct pay rates from July 2018.
We made a rounding of trainee wages for 3yr (year 12).
We updated the allowance rate update for kilometre allowance - Car (above and below ATO limit). To read further information refer to ATO website. We have updated the Support Worker Casual loading pay rate rounding to reflect pay increases effective 1st July 2018.
We have updated the award to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Decision four-year review of modern awards. You can find information on the determination here. Family and Domestic Violence leave applies from the first full pay period on or after 1st August 2018. You can find further information on the Fair Work website.
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 five days renew every 12 months of their employment, but it will not accumulate if they do not use the full leave balance.
We have created a new leave category called Family and Domestic Violence Leave and a new work type called Family and Domestic Violence Leave taken. We have also updated the Leave Allowance Templates and any impacted rule conditions.
We have updated the pay rate templates to reflect the ATO threshold maximum limits for claiming laundry (not dry cleaning) for deductible clothing under the Award. You can find further information in the Cleaning of Work Clothing section of this ATO article.
We have updated the Award to reflect the Fair Work Commission’s national minimum wage increase of 3.5% from its Annual Wage Review 2017-18 decision. It also includes updates to expense-related allowances. These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after 1st July 2018. Please install these updates after you have finalised your last pay run before the first full pay period beginning on or after 1st July 2018.
We created a new laundry allowance, pay categories, and rule conditions to reflect the ATO threshold maximum limits for claiming of laundry (not dry cleaning) for deductible clothing under the Award. You can find further information in the Cleaning of Work Clothing section of this ATO article. We have also updated the Payment Classification settings for allowance-based pay categories as per STP requirements.
We have fixed the auto-meal break rules so that they do not apply to leave requests. We have updated allowance pay categories configuration and also created a Kilometre Allowance pay categories - above and below ATO limits
Installing the pre-built award package
To read details on how to install and configure this Pre-built Award Template, please review the following article. Before relying on the award information, users should carefully evaluate its accuracy, currency, completeness, and relevance for their purposes. You should also obtain appropriate professional advice.
Work types
The following lists out and explains the work types an employee can select on their timesheet.
| 8 hour break between shifts. | Choose this work type when, by agreement between an employer and an employee, the break between shifts is between eight and ten hours (rather than the usual minimum of ten hours). Refer to section 22.3(c) of the Children's Services Award. |
| 10 hour shift (approved by employee). | Choose this work type when, by agreement between an employer and a full time employee, the employee is rostered for up to 10 hours (rather than the usual eight hours). Refer section 21.2 of the Children's Services Award. |
| Annual leave. | Choose this work type when annual leave is taken. |
| Compassionate leave. | Choose this work type when compassionate leave is taken. |
| Excess fares allowance. | Choose this work type where an employee is directed to work away from their normal place of work on any day and you did not provide free transport. Refer section 15.3 of the Children's Services Award. |
| Educational leader allowance. | Choose this work type when an employee is required to discharge the responsibilities of the educational leader under Regulation 118 of the National Regulations. It only applies to teachers in the children’s services and early childhood education industry. |
| First aid allowance. | Choose this work type if the employee is classified below level three with the employer required appropriate first aid qualifications to administer first aid to children within the employee's care. Refer section 15.4 of the Children's Services Award. |
| First aid allowance (out of school hours care). | Choose this work type if you classify the employee below level three with appropriate first aid qualifications. Also choose this if you require them as the employer to administer first aid to children within the employee's care, and you employed the employee in out of school hours care. Refer to section 15.4 of the Children's Services Award. |
| Long service leave. | Choose this work type when long service leave is taken. |
| No meal break. | Normally, we would automatically add meal breaks for shifts over 5h 30m. Use this work type to indicate that no meal break was taken during the shift. |
| Non-term time. | Choose this work type for shifts during non-term time so that the term-time employee continues to accrue leave. |
| Overtime. | Choose this work type for any work that you classify as overtime. Refer to section 23.1 of the Children's Services Award for information about overtime entitlement. |
| Overtime meal allowance. | An employee was required to work more than two hours of overtime and you did not notify them on the previous day or earlier, and you did not supply a meal as the employer. In these cases you should add one unit of this allowance. Refer to section 15.5 of the Children's Services Award. |
| Personal/carer's leave. | Choose this work type when personal/carer's leave is taken. |
| Public holiday not worked. | An employee should choose this work type where yo do not require them to work on a shift falling on a gazetted public holiday that the employee would have otherwise worked had it not been a public holiday. |
| Rostered day off PH (AL). | A full time employee should choose this work type if their rostered day off falls on a public holiday and they wish to accrue an additional day of annual leave. Refer to section 27.3 (a) (iii) of the Children's Services Award. |
| Rostered day off PH (TIL). | A full time employee should choose this work type if their rostered day off falls on a public holiday and they wish to accrue time in lieu and take said leave within the next 28 days. Refer to section 27.3 (a) (ii) of the Children's Services Award. |
| Rostered day off PH. | An employee should choose this work type if their rostered day off falls on a public holiday and you have paid an extra day's pay. Refer to section 27.3 (a) (i) of the Children's Services Award. |
| Time in lieu taken. | Choose this work type when time in lieu is taken. |
| Time in lieu of overtime. | Choose this work type if the employee elects to accrue time in lieu rather than pay for any overtime for this shift. |
| Unpaid leave. | Choose this work type when unpaid leave is taken. |
| Vehicle allowance - car. | Where an employer requests an employee to use their own motor car in the performance of their duties, you should use this work type. You should enter the number of kilometres in the units field. Refer to section 15.7 of the Children's Services Award. |
| Vehicle allowance - motorcycle. | Where an employer requests an employee to use their own motorcycle in the performance of their duties, you should use this work type. You should enter the number of kilometres in the units field. Refer to section 15.7 of the Children's Services Award. |
Tags
The following tags are available to employees under the award.
| 7 day shift worker. | Assign this tag if you employeed the employee as a shift worker and who you regularly roster to work on Sundays and public holidays. Refer to section 24.2 of the Children's Services Award for the definition of a shift worker. |
| First aid officer. | Assign this tag if you allocate the employee as a first aid officer for all shifts worked. |
| First aid officer (out of school hours care). | Assign this tag if the employee is allocated as a first aid officer for all shifts worked and the employee is employed in out-of-school hours care. |
| Educational leader allowance. | Assign this tag when an employee is required to discharge the responsibilities of the educational leader under Regulation 118 of the National Regulations. It only applies to teachers in the children’s services and early childhood education industry. |
| Leading hand A. | Assign this tag to an employee, classified as Level 4A or below, who is permanently in charge of 1 to 5 employees. You will then not be required to use the associated work type. |
| Qualifications allowance. | Assign this tag to a Director or Assistant Director who holds a Graduate Certificate in Childcare Management or equivalent to get Qualifications allowance. |
| Permanent night shift worker. | Assign this tag if you rostered the employee on a non-rotating night shift. Refer to section 23.3 (d) (iv) of the Children's Services Award. |
| Term-time employee. | Assign this tag if the employee is a term-time employee. It means you will pay for public holidays not worked at the ordinary rate of pay. |
| TIL of OT. | Assign this tag if the employee elects to always accrue time in lieu rather than be paid overtime. |
| Uniform. | Assign this tag if the employee is required to launder any special clothing or articles of clothing and the uniform requires ironing.. |
Further information
Time off instead of payment for overtime leave accrues at the same rate as the number of overtime hours worked. For example, an employee who worked two overtime hours has an entitlement to two hours’ time off. If you do take time off for overtime and the time off you intend, pay it out, you must pay at the overtime rate applicable to the overtime when worked
It also applies when you terminate an employee and you have to pay out the time. To pay it out correctly, you will need to record the overtime rate manually while you are processing the time in lieu accrual. We suggest that you record the overtime details in the Notes section of the leave accrual line in the pay run.
If you are required to pay out the time off for overtime either before termination or during termination, you can run a Pay Run Audit Report. It will show the pay runs for the employee where they accrued Time in Lieu, enabling yout to determine the applicable rates. Next, you can run an Employee Payment History Report to determine if they took any of the time off for overtime. You can then determine the correct balance based on the number of hours by taking the equivalent to the overtime payment that you made.
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