The change increases some penalty rates for casual employees in relation to evening work and Saturday work. I’ve Worked In Banking, Recruiting, Software, And More. Here’s some other things to keep an eye out for when comparing Award Rule Engines. Why Penalty Rates are Important Penalty rates have the biggest impact on workers in the service industries like hospitality, retail, aged care, child care and cleaning. But their choices are constrained by several things affecting their availability. Businesses looking to gain greater compliance comfort and oversight into their business should implement workforce management software solutions for peace of mind and security to managing and paying staff. The FWC decision refers to “the fact that employees are exercising a choice, albeit one that is constrained by other considerations”. Can I set different Saturday/Sunday multipliers for Full Time and Casual staff? Base Rate – Casual (1.25x) … I solely rely on my Saturday and Sunday penalty rates, in which I make the amount that I should be making without those rates, when considering the amount of work I actually do. The tool multiplies the hourly rate by the number of hours to calculate total pay. In short, the employment effects of the FWC decision, to the extent that they exist, are very unlikely to offset the significant problems we already see, through our research, with Sunday work in retail and hospitality: low wages, underemployment, low employee control, and the “disutilities” of spending time away from friends and families. If that’s what you need, just pick whichever looks good and is well supported. Firstly, an Award Interpreter (read about Tanda’s Award Interpreter) is software that figures out how much staff should be getting paid based on their hours and times worked. McDonald's defends not paying weekend penalty rates and shoppies union wage deal. ... Sunday weekend penalty rates cut by Fair Work Commission. So, if they get the chance, then almost all additional hours made available on Sundays in existing workplaces would be taken up by existing workers. Select your award from our interactive tool below to see a full summary of penalty rate changes. Public holiday rates for full-time workers in hospitality will be reduced from 250% to 225%, with no change for casual Public Holiday penalty rates. Sunday Penalty Rates: What’s really happening? Generally, this means the business is only open for a few hours on days that it does open. Most are not really sure which award interpretation tool is right for their business. Each week you only enter the number of hours worked (you don’t worry about times). Saturday Rate – Full Time Warning: Be careful with this one. One said: I work Sundays for the pay, it massively helps me manage all my living expenses…but it is a bit of downer sometimes knowing you’re stranded inside doing shit jobs whilst all your friends are at a barbeque or random gathering (TS, 20, casual hospitality worker). The Fair Work Commission has today announced that Sunday and Public Holiday penalty rates are to be cut across Hospitality, Retail, and Fast Food Awards, while Saturday penalty rates are to remain the same. Not too long ago, specific pay rates for industries were regulated at a State, rather than a Federal level. Those who work in industries that pay penalty rates are not low paid. The high rate of underemployment raises serious questions as to how useful a measure the unemployment rate is these days of labour market “slack”. However, The Commission has stated that the immediate implementation of updated Sunday penalty rates would create undue financial distress for Sunday workers. On the one hand, it is undoubtedly less attractive for many of them. The majority of retail employees who would be affected by changes to weekend penalty rates are not students — even though a significant minority are students. Can I configure different pay rates for junior staff? The Fair Work Commission has today announced that Sunday and Public Holiday penalty rates are to be cut across Hospitality, Retail, and Fast Food Awards, while Saturday penalty rates are to remain the same. The Different Kinds of Award Interpreters, We often chat to people who have looked at a few different award interpretation tools on the market. The 550 Kikki.K workers are covered by a new enterprise agreement approved last month. However, this does not mean that most people who work in those industries are tertiary students, let alone that they are not in need. It acknowledges that there are “disutilities” associated with working on Sundays, and these are worse than working on Saturdays, but by much less than in the past. In this post, we’re going to take a look at the different kinds of award interpreters out there to help you understand what is important when looking for a tool for you or your clients. Underemployment — people wanting to work more hours than they presently work — is common amongst part-time workers. or that I would slip to the back of the boss’s list of who gets called up first for the hours. This is simple because staff are paid the same thing most pay runs. What award interpreter is right for you? To the extent that additional hours are taken up by new workers (you would expect some leakage like this), then existing workers will be even worse off. You should ask these questions before implementing a system so you don’t get burned 3 months down the track. But at this lower pay rate, they’d need to work 33% more hours to keep their Sunday income. No changes will be made to Sunday penalty rates for Level 2 and Level 3 Employees under the Award. Weekend Penalty Rates. Many workers on penalty rates … In each case, public holiday rates replace any shift penalties. Advocates of the rate cut argue that although some employees would see less money in their take-home pay packet, the overall result will be lower unemployment; not only because more business will trade on Sunday, but because many businesses will choose to increase their service levels (by employing more people) when margins aren’t quite so slim. There’s a lot of argument about the effects of cuts in penalty rates, or other regulated wages, on employment. It’s not the same as the number of “jobs”. Casual Sunday rates for retail will also be reduced from 200% to 175%. 5 ways to make money educating online. For an Honours project, we also undertook or supervised qualitative interviews, using a snowballed sample of 15 Sunday workers from the retail and hospitality industries. Overtime, Allowances, Penalty Rates, RDOs, TOIL, or Leave costing), read on… Weekday Rate – Full Time Share on Facebook. “I have to pay overtime, penalty rates or allowances,” or Amongst the weekend workers who we interviewed, all were generally averse to working on Sundays one way or another. These solutions not only automate Award and EA calculations (where most of the payroll mistakes occur), but also provides oversight into the entire business, including pay rates, staff attendance and wage costs. Stay updated with the latest insights on frontline work, industry news, business templates, and other free resources. Grumpy Motorist - February 24, 2017. Single Rate Award Calculator’s are great if you have staff on a single employment type as all their multipliers will be the same. Can I calculate overtime based on an employee working outside their rostered hours? Labor leader Bill Shorten needs to make call on weekend penalty rates AS A former union leader, it should be Bill Shorten’s bread and butter. Are staff pay rates automatically updated in the linked payroll system? Some Award Rule Engines also come with pre-built sets of rules called Templates. On this page: what the changes mean for you; how to calculate your rates; the history of the changes. Employees often get a higher pay rate when working: 1. weekends 2. public holidays 3. overtime 4. late nights shifts or 5. early morning shifts. Saturday Rate – Casual (1.75x) For more information regarding the Fair Work Act and regulations please visit the Fair Work site. The qualitative interviews revealed some other aspects of Sunday work. 25 20 Overtime is when your employee works more than 38 hours per week or outside the ordinary hours listed in the employee’s agreement. A day worker is a worker who works their ordinary hours from Monday to Friday inclusive and commences work at or after 6AM and before 10AM. When lay employers gave evidence to the FWC, it indicated they anticipated an increase in overall hours worked. So reducing penalty rates in retail will affect not only tertiary students but also a significant number of people who are likely to be dependent on this wage as their sole source of income. 30 What are employees’ preferences, and why? A desire for more Saturday work and for less Sunday work was quite common amongst our interviewees. They are well and truly struggled for entitlements – so when entitlements are somehow given away - questions are asked – the Royal Commission into Trade Unions h ave delved into this with some startling revelations. And underemployment is most pervasive in the retail and hospitality industries. If you you have a Full Time employee (base $20/hour), and a Casual employee (base $20/hour + 25% casual loading = $25/hour). Do they pay penalty rates? On Thursday the Fair Work Commission (FWC) cut penalty rates for Sunday and pubic holiday work for a wide rage of workers in retailing, hospitality and fast food, as well as rates for some night and early morning work for workers in fast food. The problem for Turnbull and the Coalition is their track-record on labour market reform. Many were unable to secure their preferred schedule, which would have involved working fewer Sundays. Four had “some control” (mostly these were students). Sometimes time and a half and sometimes double time are agreed to or offered but there is nothing in law requiring employers to pay extra per hour. There are many institutional, practical and political factors at play which we will try to summarise in this article. Changes to Sunday Penalty Rates Sunday penalty rates for full time and part time hospitality workers will be reduced from 175% to 150%, rates for casuals will remain the same at 175%. It is hoped that reducing penalty rates will bring  about more ‘positive employment effects’ for businesses, and will “lead to increased trading hours, an increase in the level and range of services offered on Sundays and Public Holidays and an increase in overall hours worked.” It’s called a rule engine because it’s based on different payroll rules that you configure, allowing you to pay staff at different rates across the week. Can the engine pay the correct allowances for split shifts? So yeah … the money is my motivator! Most award interpretation tools on the market can be used for Single Rate Calculation. If you have staff that get paid hourly and receive different rates on weekdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, you might be able to use a Single Rate Calculator. The incomes of the casuals were mostly in the range of $400–650 per week. Scott Bruynius is a PhD candidate within the School of Government and Business at Griffith University, and currently undertaking research in Employment Relations. Which meant for instance, Sunday rates for retail workers plummeted from 200% to just 150% and public holiday rates for hospo workers were cut from 250% to 225%. Staff at stationery chain Kikki.K will be the first employees covered by an enterprise agreement to directly face cuts as a result of the Fair Work Commission’s decision to cut weekend penalty rates. Arguments for reducing Sunday penalty rates They acted to mitigate the negative effects of their predominantly involuntary Sunday employment. It has demonstrated structural increases over time across the economy as part-time employment has grown. Single Rate Calculators: Pays staff only single types of pay like weekday, Saturday and Sunday rates. Not, let’s be clear, the penalty rates received by paramedics, nurses or fire fighters. Changes to Public Holiday rates will come into effect July 1, 2017. This might come up if you run a very small business with only a few staff. Changes to Public Holiday rates will come into effect July 1, 2017. A shift worker is a worker who is not a day worker. Hopefully, this post has helped clear some confusion around the types of tools that exist in the market and what you can use depending on how your workforce is set up. So many are in no position to exercise genuine choice over working on Sundays. If passed, this legislation will see the maximum penalties for a company increase from $54,000 to $540,000, and maximum penalties for an individual increase from $10,800 to $108,000. If any of these sound familiar, you’re after an Award Rule Engine. If you only employ salaried staff, a Salary Costing Tool is perfect for you. Level 1 Employees under the Fast Food Award will see a reduction in Sunday penalty rates from 150% to 125% for full-time and part-time employees. 30 Also, Public Holidays, if the calculator supports it. Most will require an employer to pay at least time and a half of the normal base wage for work performed on a Saturday and double time for employees who perform work on a Sunday. The decision was handed down after more than eight months of deliberation, and comes after The Productivity Commission recommended bringing Sunday penalty rates into line with Saturday rates in 2015. Based on the times or days that they work? A month after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described penalty rates as ‘out-dated’, the Productivity Commission recommended changes for workers in the entertainment, hospitality and […] A good template will include all of the base rates for different levels of staff (each employee will have a minimum wage and the template should include this). Public holiday rates for full-time workers in hospitality will be reduced from 250% to 225%, with no change for casual Public Holiday penalty rates. If a cut in penalty rates leads to an increase in the number of hours worked, but not to more people in jobs, are they really better off? Of course the debate over penalty and overtime rates is a matter currently under review in the Modern Awards with a push by employer groups to limit the application of weekend penalties to a blanket 25% in the light of 7 day trading. A really good template will automatically keep your payroll software up to date based on Fair Work Award updates. Those with low autonomy reported that penalty rates were an essential element in accepting Sunday work. However, The Commission has stated that the immediate implementation of updated Sunday penalty rates would create undue financial distress for Sunday workers. If everyone you employ is the same employment type (e.g. Respondents’ aversion to Sunday work stemmed from the disruption to crucial shared time they would otherwise have had with family, partners and friends. Penalty rates are different from working overtime. Arguments against reducing Sunday penalty rates She is the author of many articles and papers as well as Capitalist Networks and Social Power in Australia and New Zealand (Ashgate, 2006), co-author of Women of the Coal Rushes (UNSW Press, 2010), and co-editor of Financial Elites and Transnational Business: Who Rules the World? In the retail and hospitality industries alone, over 1.1 million workers regularly work on weekends. And to the extent that this overestimates the “employment” gains, their losses would be even greater again. Penalty rates in the Restaurant, Hospitality, Pharmacy, Fast Food and Retail awards have been gradually changing since 2017. Accessorial liability has been one of the preferred tools wielded by Fair Work recently, as it focuses on looking past the principal company to further down the supply and managerial chain. 25 Systems that treat all time as ordinary can end up costing you a lot more in labour costs – and staff won’t complain if you get that wrong!) The move to shift powers of overall rate-setting to the confines of Canberra means that this debate is now being played out on the national stage. How does the engine handle RDOs or TOIL accrual? Base Rate – Full Time (1x) While business owners have always been liable for such breaches, it is the first case of a payroll manager being penalised under accessorial liability. Here is how Fair Work’s Pay Rate Calculator says you should have paid: Fair Work recently imposed a $143,000 penalty against a Brisbane Business Owner and his former internal Payroll and Account Manager, after it was uncovered that they had deliberately underpaid […], 2 March 2017    |    Events & Media AU    |. With thanks to Rob Corr Recently, there has been a rush of business lobby groups from the retail and hospitality sectors talking about the terrible evils of weekend penalty rates. Of these, three were already holding down multiple jobs. Her research has focused on several areas of sociology including networks of power, gender, work and sustainability. Fair Work recently imposed a $143,000 penalty against a Brisbane Business Owner and his former internal Payroll and Account Manager, after it was uncovered that they had deliberately underpaid staff at a Japanese food outlet. Amongst our interviewees, four workers were seeking full-time employment. If this is you, you’re in luck – you will not need an additional system for award interpretation! Save. The third aspect of Sunday work uncovered by these interviews was the difficulty of working on Sundays. (Most studies don’t suggest the effect would be that big, and some suggest the effect would be zero, but we’re just talking hypotheticals here.) In addition, they also calculate overtime, penalty rates, allowances, accruals and leave. However, these can vary depending on the type of job. From the ABS data we can see that retailing accounts for 22% of employees usually or sometimes working on Saturdays, and 20% of employees usually or sometimes working on Sundays. And even then they would be unambiguously worse off, working more hours for less total income. He aims to continue producing academic contributions that focus on social justice within the realm of work, both locally and abroad. This involved workers across Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, mostly Anglophone, from a range of backgrounds including young adults, students and those with and without dependents. Most payroll systems (including MYOB and Xero) already include such a tool, so if this is you, you’re also in luck – you won’t need an additional system for award interpretation! Losses of penalty rates would lead to losses of income for many low-income, non-students — as well as for students — with little power to respond. "With 15 per cent unemployment staring us down the barrel of the gun, the first priority is to get people back into work," he said. To do this, we first analysed data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), using the Forms of Employment survey over the 2011–13 period. As soon as the debate shifts to penalty rates, Turnbull runs the risk of resurfacing some of the toxic politics from the WorkChoices legislation. Are you able to configure accrual for arbitrary leave types? 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