1st

We’ve made the following changes to the award:

1. New pay rate templates and employment agreements have been created to reflect the updated classification structures and minimum rate increases for Dental Assistants, Dental Therapists, and Oral Health Therapists. These changes are in response to the Fair Work Commission’s 'Gender-based undervaluation – priority awards review'.
   • Previous templates have been marked with an asterisk (*) are no longer in used. The minimum rates have not been updated.
2. The naming convention for employment agreements associated with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Health Worker classifications has been updated to align with the wording in the Award.

These updates are effective from the first full pay period on or after 1 January 2026. Please install these updates only after you have finalized your last pay run of 2025.

Once installed, you must manually update employee profiles to their new classification levels. For employees engaged on or before 31 December 2025, please refer to the translation arrangements outlined in clauses under Schedule H of the Award to ensure they are mapped to the correct new level.

You can find more information on the Determination here. 

13th

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 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.

We have also updated the Automatic Meal Break rule under the ACCHS Permanent Shift Worker rule set to ensure that only one unpaid meal break applies, consistent with other rule sets.

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 but accrues leave. The payment classification has also been updated in line with the ATO specification categories. 

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

6th

We have updated the Rest period after overtime rule in line with clause 20.5 across all the rulesets of the award. Consequently, a new work type named "No Rest Period After Overtime" has been introduced. Please utilise this work type in cases where the employee has not met the required 10 consecutive hours of rest break due to excessive overtime.

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 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 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 July 2023. We have also updated the Community Service Leave category to make sure it pays at base rate.

1st

We have updated the award to include clause 20.5 Rest period after overtime. In line with the update, we have added a new pay category Less than 10 hours of break for both permanent, and casual employees.

18th

We have updated the award to include clause 20.5 Rest period after overtime. In line with the update, we have added a new pay category Less than 10 hours of break for both permanent, and casual employees.

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 have been applied to the Payroll classic platform and what you should be aware of can be found 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.

We have enabled unpaid pandemic leave as this entitlement has been reinserted within this award and is available for eligible employees from the 15th July 2022 until the 31st December 2022. Additional information can be found on the Fairwork website.

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 and includes updates to expense-related allowances. You can find information on the determinations can be found here and here.

These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after the 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 the 1st July 2022.

We have disabled Unpaid Pandemic Leave as this entitlement has now expired within the award. Additional information can be found on the Fairwork website.

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.

We have updated the award in line with the ATO's requirements for STP Phase Two reporting. The reporting of gross earnings is now being disaggregated into distinguishable categories. We have also updated the Pay Category payment classifications in line with the ATO specification categories.

We made a lot of changes to align the platform with all the provisions in clause 20.7 of the award. The clause relates to on-call and recall. We renamed the existing work type Recalled to Work to Recalled to Work (when on call). It refers to the scenario in clause 20.7(b) where an employee, who is on call, is recalled for duty for any period during an off duty period. We also created a new work type, Recalled to Work OT (Off-Duty), to reflect the scenario in 20.7(d) where an employee is recalled to work overtime during an off duty period which is not continuous with the next succeeding rostered period of duty.

We have added new recall pay categories for both permanent and casual employees in line with the Fair Work pay guide. The new pay categories are Recall (when on call) - less than 12hrs after start of last normal shift, Recall (when on call) - more than 12hrs after start of last normal shift, Recall (when on call) - public holiday, Recall (during off duty period) first 2 hours and Recall (during off duty period) after two hours.

We have updated the ACCHS Permanent Day Worker, ACCHS Permanent Shift Worker, ACCHS Casual Day Worker, and ACCHS Casual Shift Worker pay condition rule sets to reflect Clause 20.7(b)(i) and (ii) of the Award. When you select the work type Recalled to Duty (when on call), the employee is paid the applicable “Recall (when on call)” pay categories. For days that are not public holidays, employees will receive 150% of the minimum hourly rate if the work is within the spread of 12 hours from the commencement of the last period of ordinary duty and 200% of the minimum hourly rate if the work is outside the spread of 12 hours from the commencement of the last period of ordinary duty.

We have updated ACCHS Permanent Day Worker, ACCHS Permanent Shift Worker, ACCHS Casual Day Worker, and ACCHS Casual Shift Worker pay condition rule sets have been updated to reflect Clause 20.7(d) of the Award. When the work type Recalled to Work OT (Off-Duty) is selected, a minimum engagement of three hours is applied, and the employee is paid the applicable “Recall (during off duty period)” pay categories. The time is paid as overtime; 150% of the minimum hourly rate for the first two hours and 200% of the minimum hourly rate thereafter.

Updates have been made to the Unpaid Pandemic Leave allowance Templates so that the balance is displayed 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, and this will mean that an employee’s balance may now show as 76 weeks.

We have updated the ACCHS Permanent Day Worker, ACCHS Permanent Shift Worker, ACCHS Casual Day Worker, and ACCHS Casual Shift Worker pay condition rule sets to make sure that part-time employees will be paid overtime in excess of their standard hours set in their Pay Run Defaults page, and making sure that leave work types are excluded from payment on applicable allowances and overtime rules.

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 and also includes updates to expense-related allowances. You can find information on the Determinations can be found here and here. These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after the 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 the 1st July 2021.

Updates have also been made to the Leave Category Family & Domestic Violence Leave, so that the balance displays 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, and this means that an employee’s balance may now show as 38 days.

Updates were made to the Employment agreements for the Aboriginal Health Worker (Shiftworker) Grade 3 - Level 1 - Casual, Administrative (Shiftworker) Grade 3 - Level 2 – Full time, and Administrative (Shiftworker) Grade 3 - Level 3 – Part-time to add the Western Australian Leave Allowance Templates.

The update makes sure that any new installs of this award conducted since 1st July are now captured with 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 the 1st July 2021, then you do not need to select the No option. 

Updates have been made to the ACCHS Permanent Day Worker, ACCHS Permanent Shift Worker pay conditions rule sets regarding the Apply Overtime - Over Standard Hours - Part-Time rule to work accrue Overtime in a Shift period rather than a shift. Updates were also made to the Evening & Night shift Pay categories, to accrue the Penalty loading rate to the base pay rate. Updates were also made to the entire pay condition rule set on how leave is excluded from the rules.

We have updated the award pay rate templates to make sure that the legislated superannuation guarantee (SG) rate will increase automatically from 9.5% to 10% effective from the 1st July 2021. Please make sure you install this update before the 1st July 2021 for this change to take effect. Thereby, meaning that any pay run with a date paid on or from the 1st July 2021 will automatically calculate SG at 10% of OTE. Additionally, on the 1st of July, we will update references to 9.5% on all applicable screens in the Payroll classic platform. For more information, including any exclusions, check out this article from the ATO.

We varied the award as part of the Fair Work Commission's four-yearly review of modern awards. The determination comes into operation on the 1st January 2021. Under s.165(3) of the Fair Work Act 2009, the determination does not take effect in relation to a particular employee until the start of the employee's first full pay period that starts on or after the 1st January 2021. We also updated the award name to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Practitioners and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services Award 2020.

We have added a new tag; Medication Administration Allowance for employees who are qualified and permitted under law to administer medications in the performance of their duties. We also added a new work type for Nauseous Work Allowance for when an employee is engaged in handling linen of a nauseous nature other than linen sealed in airtight containers and/or for work which is of an unusually dirty or offensive nature. We updated the ACCHS Permanent Day Worker, ACCHS Permanent Shift Worker, ACCHS Casual Day Worker, ACCHS Casual Shift Worker pay condition rule sets to incorporate these allowances.

We have updated the Employment Agreements and Pay Rate Templates for Health Workers. The new classification structure divides the existing Grade One entry-level classification into two grades. There are now five grades instead of four. Please make sure after installing this update your employees are on the correct grade. For further information you can read the award determination here.

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 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 before the 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 award, as part of the 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, and 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 the 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 (2) weeks of unpaid pandemic leave.

We have created a new pay category (Unpaid Pandemic Leave Taken), leave category and work type (Unpaid Pandemic Leave). Also, we 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 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, we have made updates to the setup of the Award. We have created a new Leave Category called Personal/Carer's (10 days) Leave has been created.

Also, we created new Leave Allowance Templates (LATs) 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. We have also 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 and 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 the 1st July 2019.

We found the setup in the Payroll Tax Exempt field on the Payroll Settings Pay Categories page replicated the PAYG Exempt field rather than creating a unique identity; when installed on your business settings. We carried out an audit across the platform and have now resolved the issue with this update.

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. Further information can be found at Fair Work. 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 each 12 months of their employment, but will not accumulate if the leave is not used.

We have created a new Family and Domestic Violence leave category and a new Family and Domestic Violence leave-taken work type. The Leave Allowance Templates and any impacted rule conditions have also been updated.

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 and also includes updates to expense-related allowances. These changes come into effect from the first full pay period on or after the 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 the 1st July 2018 Additionally, the Payment Classification settings for Allowance-based pay categories have been updated as per STP requirements. We have created a new rule - 24.2 Apply Overtime - Over Advanced Standard Hours - Part-Time. The rule reflects the following provisions of clause 10.3(b):

• 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. 

We fixed any auto-meal break rules so that they do not apply to leave requests. We also updated the allowance pay categories configuration and created a new kilometre allowance pay categories, above and below ATO limits.