Every Single SCHADS Allowance EXPLAINED (Online Course)
Introduction
This video explains the different allowances that employees are entitled to under the SCHADS Award and how employers can calculate and pay them correctly. It covers a range of situations, including uniforms, first aid duties, meal breaks, vehicle use, on-call work, heat, sleepovers, and broken shifts. The video also highlights conditions and limits for each allowance, ensuring employers understand their obligations and remain compliant with Fair Work requirements. By following this guide, employers can accurately process allowances in payroll and ensure staff are fairly compensated for additional responsibilities, special tasks, or work in challenging conditions.
Key Takeaways
- Allowances are extra payments for specific tasks, skills, use of personal tools, or work in unpleasant or dangerous conditions.
- Clothing and equipment allowances apply if uniforms are not provided or if cleaning is required.
- Additional allowances include first aid, meal, vehicle, on-call, heat, sleepover, and broken shift payments.
- Each allowance has specific rates, conditions, and caps that must be followed.
- On-call and overtime allowances depend on whether the work falls within ordinary hours.
- Accurate allowance payments help maintain compliance with the SCHADS Award and Fair Work regulations.
Transcript
Introduction and Course Information
Shad's allowance and what it entails, so that you can easily understand how to pay allowances to your staff accurately. Also, make sure you check out our playlist containing the rest of the course. I've left a link in the description box below.
If you work in a business under the SCHADS Award and you need to include this as part of your CBD, or you need a certificate of completion, we have a paid version of the course that will also issue you a certificate when you complete it. It also includes bonus tools like our SCHADS compliance checklist to help you with processing payroll, and we keep the course 100% updated as changes come through with the SCHADS Award. I've also left links to access it below.
Ready? Let's get into it.
What is an Allowance?
In this next module, I'm going to run you through the different allowances your employees are entitled to under the SCHADS Award. But first, what exactly is an allowance? Allowances are extra payments made to employees who do certain tasks, have a particular skill, use their own tools at work, or provide work in unpleasant or dangerous conditions. With the Fair Work Commission clamping down on compliance, you'll want to stick around to ensure you understand what allowances your employees are entitled to.
Clothing and Equipment Allowance
The first allowance applies when you don't provide your employees with the required uniform. You'll have to pay them what's called a clothing and equipment allowance. Instead of giving the employee a uniform, you need to pay them an allowance of $1.23 per shift, up to a maximum of $6.24 per week.
If you require your staff to wear a uniform, you also have to account for cleaning that uniform. If you don't offer free laundry service for their uniform, you'll need to pay them an allowance of $0.32 per shift, up to a maximum of $1.49 per week, to launder it.
Now, if you don't supply a uniform and an employee's clothing is soiled in the course of duty, they'll be entitled to a laundry allowance of $0.32 per shift. There are, however, certain conditions. First, the employee must advise the employer of the soiling as soon as possible and, if required, provide evidence. Second, they must have also complied with relevant PPE requirements at the time of soiling to receive the allowance.
First Aid Allowance
The third allowance is for any of your qualified first aiders. If you expect them to perform first aid duties, for full-time employees you'll have to pay $19.76 each week. For part-time or casual employees, you can pay them on a pro-rata basis of $0.52 per hour, up to a maximum of $19.76 per week.
Meal Allowance
Next, we have the meal allowance, which applies if you expect your employees to work overtime but you don't provide them with a meal. If you can supply them with a good meal, you can do that, but if you don't have the facilities to do so, you'll need to pay them an allowance of $16.20.
Vehicle Allowance
Where you need an employee to use their car to perform their duties, you also have to pay them an allowance. The vehicle allowance works according to the number of kilometers your employee drives. The current amount you'll have to pay is $0.99 per kilometer.
On-Call Allowance
Because of the nature of the industry, there are also conditions regarding employees on call. If the job position requires your employees to be on call for a certain number of days a week, you'll need to figure out if this is part of their ordinary hours or not. Keep in mind that this allowance also applies to employees who are available for recall to duty at the employer's or client's premises and for remote work. If it's outside of an employee's ordinary hours of work, it shouldn't be part of ordinary time earnings, which means you must pay them an allowance. The allowance will end up being $2.36 for any 24-hour period between Monday and Friday and $4.68 for any 24-hour period or part thereof on a public holiday.
Heat Allowance
Next up is the heat allowance. If the temperature is between 40 and 46°C, you must pay them $0.59 per hour. But if the temperature is more than 46°C, you'll need to pay $0.71 per hour.
Sleepover Allowance
The eighth allowance is related to sleepovers, which is often a requirement of the job for employees who fall under the SCHADS Award. If you require an employee to sleep overnight at a client's home and they are not on a 24-hour shift, which we will discuss later in this course, you will need to pay them a sleepover allowance of $57.99 for each sleepover that spans over a continuous period of 8 hours.
Broken Shift Allowance
Lastly, we have broken shifts. We will discuss this in more detail later in the course, but if you require your staff to work multiple periods in a single day, broken up by unpaid breaks, this is called a broken shift. In instances where you have employees that work broken shifts, you'll need to pay them an allowance depending on how many unpaid breaks they have. If it's one unpaid break, you must pay $20.21 per broken shift. If it's two unpaid breaks, you must pay $26.63 per broken shift.
Conclusion
So those are all the allowances you'll need to pay your employees where applicable. In the next module, we're going to look at the different types of shifts your employees may work and what your obligations are in relation to those shifts.