The Pharmacy Award (MA000012) covers employers in the pharmacy industry and their employees who fit within the award’s classifications.
While you can review the Pharmacy Industry Award on the Fair Work website, the document is often filled with complicated legal jargon, making it challenging to understand whether or not your pharmacy business is meeting all the compliance requirements.
With a recent focus on payroll compliance from Fair Work Commission Australia and media coverage of businesses guilty of wage theft, it’s more important now than ever that companies understand what’s expected of their obligations when it comes to being compliant with pay rates and employment conditions.
Just in the last 24 months, there were payroll compliance breaches with Chemist Warehouse, and Save and Deliver Pharmacies, who were found to have failed to pay a range of minimum entitlements under the Pharmacy Award.
To help guide you in the right direction, we’ve created an easy-to-understand eBook that summarises all the essentials in the Pharmacy Award. Our eBook also includes a payroll processing checklist for your pharmacy business so that you can ensure you cover all your bases and remain compliant in terms of the Pharmacy Award.
We’ve also put together this article to cover some of the conditions you may not have known existed in the Pharmacy Award that you should know to ensure you fully understand how to be 100% compliant.
Disclaimer:
Please note that every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided in this guide is accurate. You should note, however, that the information is intended as a guide only, providing an overview of general information available. This guide is not intended to be an exhaustive source of information and should not be seen to constitute legal or tax advice. You should, where necessary, seek a second professional opinion for any legal or tax issues raised in your business affairs.
School Student Part-Time or Casual Employees
Along with the employee agreeing to work less than 3 hours, they must obtain their parent or guardian’s permission to work on the school day.
In addition, at least one employee that is classified at level 3 or higher must be engaged over the same period to supervise the school student.
Back to topRostering Arrangements
- 2 consecutive days off each week; or
- 3 consecutive days off over 2 straight weeks?
Or, if they’re rostered to work ordinary hours on 6 days one week, then they shouldn’t be rostered to work ordinary hours more than 4 days the following week?
Breaks After 7.6 Hours of Work
The paid rest breaks shouldn’t be taken:
- in the first hour of work; or
- the first hour after a meal break.
And the unpaid meal break must be taken in the first 5 hours of work but not before completing at least 2.5 hours of work.
On-Premise Meal Allowance
District Allowance - Broken Hill
In that case, they are entitled to an allowance of 4.28% on top of their regular wages.
The allowance was introduced in the Pharmacy Award to compensate for a decision made to reduce their five weeks paid annual level to 4.
Time Off Instead of Payment For Overtime
Employees are entitled to take time off based on what their overtime payment would have been.
Example:
Matthew, a part-time pharmacy assistant, worked 3 hours overtime.
He had asked his employer if he could receive time off instead of getting paid for his overtime hours. Claudia, his employer, agreed.
According to the Pharmacy Industry Award’s overtime rates, he is entitled to receive 200% of his ordinary hourly rate. So, Matthew’s time off calculation will be as follows:
3 hours x 200% overtime rate = 6 hours
So, Matthew is entitled to take 6 hours time off instead of getting paid for his overtime hours. However, this time off needs to be taken within six months of the worked overtime and at a time agreed on by both the employer and employee.
Penalty Rates Don’t Only Apply to Weekends
- Monday to Friday: from 7.00 am- 8.00 am;
- Monday to Friday: from 7.00 pm- 9.00 pm; and
- Monday to Friday: 9.00 pm-midnight.
- Saturday from 8.00 am- 6.00 pm; or
- Saturday from: 9.00 pm-midnight; and
- Sunday from 7.00 am- 9.00 pm.
Special penalty rates also apply to different hours for Saturday and Sunday work. For example:
Working on public holidays also entitles a pharmacist, pharmacy assistant and other employees to pay in terms of the penalty rates.
Our Pharmacy Award eBook outlines the penalty rates that are to be paid at different times and on different days. Ensure you are familiar with all penalty rates applicable to the different hours of work on each day.
Key Takeaways
Beyond reading the Pharmacy Award eBook and this article, given the complexity of the award, we have found that adopting Employment Hero Payroll's cloud software to automate your compliance and help with labour cost control is a handy tool.
If you’re still feeling unsure about your compliance with the Pharmacy Award, feel free to get in touch with us at Pay Cat to learn more about adopting Employment Hero Payroll's cloud software for the Pharmacy Industry Award (MA000012) or any other modern award.
Alternatively, if you're interested in making the move to Employment Hero Payroll, book in a free demo with us to find out how you can automate your Modern Award compliance.
