The article provides guidelines about when to use the different work types and tags that we include as part of the pre-built pharmacy industry award package. To read further information about the pharmacy industry award, refer to Pharmacy Industry Award.
Key updates
Select the current financial year tab to see award updates for the 2024/25 financial year. All previous updates before this time you can find in the historical financial years tab.
10th
We have updated the pay rate template for "Permanent Pharmacy Student 1st Yr" to reflect the minimum rate in the pay guide.
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 accrues leave. The payment classification has also been updated in line with the ATO specification categories.
We have performed a revamp on the award and all pay condition rule sets have been updated to ensure that it is aligned with the clauses under the award. The timesheet should have start and end times for the rules to apply correctly. The following changes have been made but not limited to:
- Clause 28.1 Introduced new pay category "Permanent - Public Holiday not worked"
- Clause 23.3 Annual leave loading
- Clause 21.2(a) Introduced new rule Exceeding 38 Hours in Period - Full Time
- Created new Penalties and Overtime pay categories to link under Ordinary hours. This will ensure that the penalties and overtime rates will also get updated when the base rate is changed.
- Removed Part-time Top up hours rule
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.
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.
Added clause 19.9, Broken Hill allowance; this includes a new pay category District allowance - Broken Hill, and a new tag Broken Hill allowance. Assign the tag when an employee's workplace is within the County of Yancowinna in New South Wales (Broken Hill)
We adjusted the rounding values for Permanent L1 16yrs, Permanent L1 17yrs, Permanent Pharmacy Student 1st Yr, Permanent L1 21yrs and over pay rate templates to match the pay guide rates for Saturday - 8:00am to 6:00pm, Overtime - Public Holiday and Overtime - Monday to Saturday - first 2 hours.
We have updated the Permanent Pharmacy and Casual Pharmacy pay conditions rule sets to make sure overtime incurred from Monday - Saturday pays at 150% for the first two hours and 200% thereafter on the defined period and not daily.
We have made an update to correct the Permanent L1 under 16yrs and Casual L1 under 16yrs pay rates to reflect the rates in the pay guide for the Permanent - Weekday Ordinary & Casual -Weekday Ordinary pay categories. We also made an update to correct the casual pay rates to reflect the rates in the pay guide for the Casual - Weekday 7:00pm to 9:00pm pay category.
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. Additional information can be found on the Fair Work Australia website.
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 now disaggregating the reporting of gross earnings into distinguishable categories. We have updated the Pay Category payment classifications in line with the ATO specification categories found here
We have made updates to the Unpaid Pandemic Leave allowance Templates so that the balance displays in weeks instead of hours in line with the Fair Work Commission's 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 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 Family and Domestic Violence (FDV) leave category, so that the balance displays in days instead of hours in line with the National Employment Standards. Once you install the 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 made this update to make sure that any new installs of this award conducted since 1st July now capture the Super Guarentte (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 Permanent Pharmacy pay conditions rule sets in line with clause 23.3(b) - Annual Leave Loading. We have excluded the Overtime rules from the annual leave evaluation. The calculation paid will be the higher of either the shift earnings, not including overtime, or ordinary hours plus leave loading.
We have updated the award 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 you 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 Permanent Pharmacy and Casual Pharmacy pay conditions rule sets to make sure overtime incurred from Monday - Saturday pays at 150% for the first two hours and 200% thereafter.
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.
The pay conditions rule sets for Permanent Pharmacy Casual Pharmacy have been updated to make sure that when a leave work type is taken, the penalty and overtime rates are not calculated except for annual leave taken when calculating the higher of the penalties or loading. We will also not include the leave taken work-type hours in the period overtime rule calculation.
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.
Also, we have updated the rule sets, where necessary, to include/exclude the work type and leave category to some pay conditions. Further, we updated the Leave Allowance Templates to make sure the 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. 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. We have created a new Leave Category called Personal/Carer's (10 days) Leave. Also, we have created a new Leave Allowance Templates (LATs) specific to 10 days accrual per year for each state. Lastly, we 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 decision to increase the base pay rates by 5% in addition to the Annual Wage increase for the following employees; Pharmacists, Experienced Pharmacists, Pharmacists in Charge, and Pharmacist Managers.
It is the second and final part of the increase of 2.5% from the first full pay period beginning on or after 1st October 2019. You can find further information on the determination here. We have also updated the Permanent Pharmacy and Casual Pharmacy pay conditions rule sets to include the pay rates for Sunday before 7:00am and after 9:00pm.
We have also created a new Pay Category for both Permanent and Casual employees which we have enabled in their respective pay rate templates. Lastly, an update to adjust the casual and permanent pay rates for Pharmacists, Experienced Pharmacists, Pharmacists in Charge, and Pharmacist Managers to reflect the rates in the pay guide.
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.
We have also updated the award to reflect the Fair Work Commission's decision to increase the base pay rates by 5% in addition to the Annual Wage increase to the following employees: Pharmacists, Experienced Pharmacists, Pharmacists in Charge, and Pharmacist Managers. The first part of the increase is for 2.5% from the first full pay period beginning on or after 1st July 2019. You can find further information on the determination here.
The setup of the Payroll Tax Exempt field on the Payroll Settings Pay Categories page was replicating the PAYG Exempt field rather than creating a unique identity; when installed on the business settings. We have carried out an audit across the platform and have resolved the issue with this update.<
We have updated the Casual Pharmacy pay condition rule set of clause 26.1(a)(i) exceeding 76 Hours in a shift period to include Saturday in the conditional action and exclude Sunday as this relates to Monday to Saturday only.
We have updated the allowance rate update for Kilometre Allowance - Car (above and below ATO limit). You can find further information at the ATO. We have also updated the pay set rule conditions for casual employees under clause 26.1(a) for working more than 76 hours per fortnight.
We have updated the award to reflect changes made as part of the Fair Work Decision 4-year review of modern awards. You can find more 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 updated any impacted leave allowance templates and pay condition rule sets.
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 have created new laundry allowance pay categories and rule conditions 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 reduced the Sunday 7:00am to 9:00pm penalty for permanent employees from 95% to 80%. We have also reduced the Sunday 7:00am to 9:00pm penalty for casual employees from 120% to 105%, inclusive of casual loading.
We have removed the Pay Rate Templates for Level three and Level four juniors as they are no longer active, as per the update dated 30th October 2017. We have updated the< Payment Classification settings for Allowance-based pay categories as per STP requirements.
We have created a new rule - 26.1(b) Apply Overtime - Over Advanced Standard Hours - Part-Time. The rule reflects the following provisions of clause 12.2:
- 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. The rule will assess hours as follows:
- Any time worked on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, we wil deem overtime;
- Any time worked before the start times on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday will will deem overtime; and
- Any time worked after the end times on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday will deem overtime.
The rule only works where you have set up Advanced Standard Work Hours using start and finish times, not hours only. If you have not setup Advanced Standard Work Hours for a part-time employee, then we will deem all hours overtime.
We have included a rule for on site meal breaks to accommodate Clause 19.2 of the award. We have also updated the Long Service Leave leave templates to reflect the new Victorian entitlement period legislation Victorian entitlement period legislation, change the entitlement period from ten years to 7 years.
We have fixed any auto-meal break rules so that they do not apply to leave requests. We have updated allowance pay categories configurations; for example, changed payment classifications. Lastly, we created a Kilometre allowance pay categories - above and below ATO limits.
We have made an update to remove junior rates for Pharmacy Assistant Levels three and four. The award now only allows for levels one and two to include pro-rated junior rates. For more information, please refer to the Fair Work Determination here
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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.
The award default Rule Set Period is set to Fortnightly. If you follow a different work pattern or roster period, you can review and set the rule-set period date that applies to your organisation.
Conditions of pay
| Clause | Conditions | |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary hours or work | 13.1 | Any day between 7:00 am and midnight. |
| Maximum hours per day | 21.2 | Maximum 12 hours |
|
Maximum hours over a period |
21.2 21.3 |
|
|
Overtime |
21.4(b)
21.4(c) |
Mon-Sat: 1st 2 hours at 150% then 200% thereafter Casual loading is not payable on overtime |
| Time off instead of payment for overtime (TIL). | 21.5(b) |
Accrual is equivalent to an overtime penalty |
| Clause | Conditions | |
|---|---|---|
| Weekday | 22.3(b) |
|
|
Saturday |
22.3(b) |
|
| Sunday | 22.3(b) |
|
| Public Holidays | 22.3(b) | Paid at 225% |
| On-premise meal allowance | 19.4 |
Meal break on the premises; paid at 150% for the period of the meal break |
| Clause | Conditions | |
|---|---|---|
| Auto meal breaks | 15.2 |
30 mins unpaid break after 5 hours |
|
Minimum shift engagement |
10.7/11.1 10.14/11.5 |
|
|
Annual Leave Loading
|
23.3(b)(i)
23.3(b)(ii) |
|
| Extra Annual Leave | 23.2 |
Additional one-week Annual leave for certain shiftworkers |
| Paid Family and domestic violence leave | 27 | Higher of penalties loading |
Special Notes
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The timesheet should have start and end times for the rules to apply correctly
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Employees should add their meal breaks when they use the work type "On Site Meal Break"
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Leaves should be converted into a timesheet with the standard hours of work
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Annualised Wage Arrangements
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Per clause 18.2(c), applies to a pharmacist or a pharmacy assistant level 4
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- The clauses listed in the table below were not included in the award. If you need any of these clauses, it is necessary to create or customise the award.
| Clause no. | Clause Name | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 18.2(c) | Annualised Wages Arrangements |
Need to customise rules: If in a pay period or roster cycle an employee works any hours in excess of either of the outer limit amounts specified in the agreement pursuant to clause 18.2(b)(iv), such hours will not be covered by the annualised wage and must separately be paid |
| 16.4 | Supported wage system |
Need to create Pay Rate Templates and Employment Agreements. Employee receiving a supported wage (see Schedule D—Supported Wage System). |
| 16.5(a) | National training wage |
Need to create Pay Rate Templates and Employment Agreements.
|
| 10.12 | Part-time additional hours paid at casual loading |
Need to customise rules:
|
| 28.3 | Substitution of certain public holidays by agreement at the enterprise. |
Need to customise rules: |
Work types
The following lists out and explains the work types an employee can select on their timesheet.
| Annual leave taken. | Choose this work type when annual leave was taken |
| Carer's leave | Choose this work type when carer’s leave was taken |
| Compassionate leave taken. | Choose this work type when compassionate leave is taken. |
| Kilometre allowance | You should use this work type where an employer asks an employee to use their own motor vehicle in the performance of their duties. You should enter the kilometres travelled into the Units field. Refer section 19.4 of the Pharmacy Industry Award. |
| Long service leave | Choose this work type when long service leave is taken. |
| Meal break taken | Use this work type when a pharmacist is required to take a meal on the premise. Employee would be paid for the period of the meal break at the entitled penalty rate. |
| No meal break | Normally, meal breaks are automatically added for shifts over 5h30m. Use this work type to indicate that no meal break was taken during the shift. |
| OT worked with no prior notice (1.5 - 4 OT hrs) | An employee that was required to work between 1.5 hours and four hours of overtime with less than 24 hours’ notice and not provided with a meal should add one unit of this allowance to their shift. Refer section 19.1 of the Pharmacy Industry Award. |
| OT worked with no prior notice (4+ OT hrs) | An employee that was required to work more than four hours of overtime with less than 24 hours’ notice and not provided with a meal should add one unit of this allowance to their shift. Do not add both OT worked with no prior notice (1.5 - 4 OT hrs)" and OT worked with no prior notice (4+ OT hrs), only the most relevant one. Refer section 19.1 of the Pharmacy Industry Award. |
| Public holiday not worked | Shift workers should choose this work type for public holidays that they elect not to work. |
| School Student 2 hr Minimum Engagement | Choose this work type where, under clauses 12.12 and 13.5, part time and casual school students are eligible for a 2 hour minimum shift engagement as opposed to the standard three hour minimum shift engagement. |
| Sick leave | Choose this work type when sick leave was taken |
| Time in lieu leave taken. | Choose this work type when time in lieu leave is taken. |
| Time off in lieu of overtime | Choose this work type if the employee elects to accrue time in lieu rather than receive payment for any overtime for this shift. |
| Unpaid leave | Choose this work type when they take unpaid leave. |
Tags
The following tags are available for application to employees under the Pharmacy Industry Award.
| Broken Hill Allowance | Assign this tag when an employees workplace is within the County of Yancowinna in New South Wales (Broken Hill) |
| Shiftworker |
Assign this tag if the employee you employ the employee as a shift worker. Refer to section 28.2 of the Pharmacy Industry Award for the definition of a shift worker. |
| Time in lieu of overtime | Assign this tag if the employee elects to always accrue time in lieu of being paid overtime. |
System limitations
Please note that rules will not be able to interpret or calculate the below clauses due to platform limitations and will require manual intervention.
14.1(c) Rostering Arrangements-full-time and part-time employees
(c) Despite clause 14.1(b), employees may be rostered to work ordinary hours on 6 days one week if they are rostered to work ordinary hours on no more than 4 days the following week.
21.5 Time off instead of payment for overtime
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If the employee requests at any time, to be paid for overtime covered by an agreement under clause 21.5 but not taken as time off, the employer must pay the employee for the overtime, in the next pay period following the request, at the overtime rate applicable to the overtime when worked.
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If time off for overtime that has been worked is not taken within the period of 6 months mentioned in clause 21.5(c), the employer must pay the employee for the overtime, in the next pay period following those 6 months, at the overtime rate applicable to the overtime when worked.
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