Introduction
This guide provides an overview of how the Humanforce Suite assists in meeting the requirements of the Cleaning Services Award [MA000022]. It covers the main award clauses and their application within the Humanforce system. The purpose of this guide is to serve as a comprehensive reference for employers with employees covered by the Cleaning Services Modern Award.
Use of this Library Award does not replace your obligations to ensure you are compliant with the Award in a way applicable to you and your scenario. All advice sought throughout the building of this award was general in nature and there is no guarantee it aligns with your specific circumstances.
Using this Guide
The guide demonstrates how Humanforce assists in meeting the requirements of the Cleaning Award. While this guide details the most common sections of the Award, it is not an exhaustive resource. To view the full sections of the Award, please refer to the Cleaning Services Award on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.
This guide was last reviewed on April 11, 2024.
What Type of Employee/Employer is this Award For?
This award is intended for employers with employees covered and supported by the Cleaning Services Modern Award [MA000022].
Configuration Notes:
- This Library Award covers the follow Award profiles
- Cleaning Services – FT
- Cleaning Services – PT
- Cleaning Services – CAS
Configuring the Award
Enabling the Award
A member of the Humanforce team will be required to enable this award and any appropriate award profiles within your Humanforce system.
Setting Correct Base Pay Rates
Humanforce does not currently support award-appropriate base rates as part of our library awards. However, base rates appropriate to your organisation can be loaded within your system. For more information on setting base rates, please refer to this help article.
Enabling/Adjusting Allowances
This library award has a set of allowances which can be enabled for any given employee by assigning them a qualification from within Workforce Management. Assigning a qualification will activate the associated allowance for all shifts.
If an allowance is subject to a limit, such as a laundry or uniform allowance as an example, this has been built into the system to prevent exceeding the payment cap.
If the allowances on this library award do not align to how you pay your cleaning workforce, your workforce management consultant can work with you to find an alternative best solution appropriate to your organisation's needs. For example, it may be appropriate to relocate an allowance from a qualification to a role or set of roles, and only when those roles are worked does the allowance occur.
The following allowances may be considered for such changes:
- Cold Work Allowance
- Hot Work Allowance
- Height Allowance
- First Aid Allowance
- Leading Hand Allowance
- Refuse Collection Allowance
- Toilet Cleaning Allowance
Award Summary Table
This table is a summary of the Library award elements and which components can be edited and managed by a Humanforce Consultant, or yourselves directly.
*1 - One off config of adding the appropriate qualification given to the employee. Otherwise considered orange for the purposes of moving this allowance to a role/department/area etc.
Hours of Work
Ordinary Hours
Automated
The following rules are automated within Humanforce:
- As per clause 13.1 b) i) of the award, full-time employees work 5 days of 7.6 hours each per week.
- As per clause 13.5 a), part-time or casual employees may work their ordinary hours by working periods of duty of up to 7.6 ordinary hours per day on up to 5 days per week.
Manual in Humanforce
The following requirement is not currently automated and must be handled manually in Humanforce:
- As per clause 13.5 c) i-iv), the minimum shift engagement for part-time and casual employees varies based on the size of the space being cleaned. Humanforce cannot automatically determine the size of the space being cleaned, so this must be handled manually.
- Both cases of Call Backs (clauses 19.6 and 19.7) have a requirement where a Humanforce Roster Manager needs to apply the appropriate Shift Type to the shift
Manual in Payroll
The following requirement is not currently automated and must be handled manually in Payroll:
- As per clause 13.1 b) ii) working 152 hours per 4-week cycle in workplaces at which employees work on a rostered day off basis in accordance with clause 13.2
- As per clause 13.1 b) iii) working 19 days of 8 hours each per month must be handled out of Payroll for any breaches of this condition.
Reconfigurable
The following requirements can be reconfigured within scope:
- Standard Hours clause 13.1 b) iv) - The award has been built with the standard 7.6-hour day in mind. If an agreement exists between the employer and the majority of employees to work up to 10 hours on any day or days (thereby enabling a weekday to be taken off more frequently), the award configuration must be reconfigured accordingly.
- Other forms of Part day Public Holidays - Non standard types of part day public holidays can now be supported by these Library awards, the best example of such are regional Show days. For the more standard QLD/SA/NT Part Day public holidays, these are supported as part of the Library Award.
Unsupported
The following requirements are currently not supported within Humanforce:
- Days off per week clause 13.7 - Each employee is entitled to 2 consecutive full days off within each 7-day cycle. While we can capture 5 days working in a row, we cannot at this time capture 2 days consecutive without work at any stage. Should more than 5 days of work occur within the pay period, that will at this stage force overtime based on 13.1 b) i)
Rostering General Guidelines
Automated
The following rostering rules are automated within Humanforce:
- As per clause 13.6 b), the employer must prepare a roster showing each employee's name and their start and finish times.
- As per clause 13.6 c), the roster must be posted in a conspicuous place easily accessible by employees.
- As per clause 13.6 d), the roster may be changed by mutual agreement between the employer and employee, or by the employer giving the employee 7 days' notice (or shorter notice in case of an emergency).
- As per clause 13.6 e), any roster changes must be recorded in the employee's time and wages records.
Breaks
Automated
The following break rules are automated within Humanforce:
- As per clause 14.4 a), an employee must have a minimum break of 8 consecutive hours between finishing work on one shift and starting work on the next shift.
- As per clause 14.4 b), if an employee is required to start work without having had at least 8 consecutive hours off duty, the employer must pay the employee at the overtime rate until the employee is released from duty for at least 8 consecutive hours.
Manual in Payroll
The following break requirements are not currently automated and must be handled manually in Payroll:
- As per clause 14.3 a), if an employee is interrupted during a meal break and directed to work, the employer must pay the employee at the overtime rate until the employee is allowed to resume the meal break.
- As per clause 14.3 b), if an employee is required to start work without having had at least 8 consecutive hours off duty, the employer must pay the employee at the overtime rate until the employee is released from duty for at least 8 consecutive hours.
- As per clause 14.4 c), the employee must not suffer any loss of pay for ordinary working time hours not worked during the period of release from duty due to insufficient break time.
Wages and Allowances
Higher Duties
Manual in Payroll
The following rostering requirement is not currently automated and must be handled manually in Payroll:
- Higher Duties (clause 15.3) - at present the award is built for a single level type employment scenario where the Employee gets a code like “ORD” (Ordinary pay rate code) and the payroll system will know one employee is level 3 and another could be level 4 and pay the appropriate rate.
Allowances
Automated
The following allowance is automated within Humanforce:
- Broken Shift Allowance (clause 17.2 a-c) - If an employee works a broken shift (defined as a rostered shift on any day in 2 periods of duty with a break longer than one hour and a maximum spread of 13 hours), the employee must be paid a broken shift allowance of $4.19 per day, up to a maximum of $20.95 per week.
Manual in Humanforce
The following allowances require the relevant qualification be enabled on entitled employees profiles:
- Cold Work Allowance (clause 17.3 a) - An employee who works for more than one hour in a place where the temperature is below 0°C must be paid an allowance of $0.61 per hour.
- Hot Work Allowance (clause 17.4 a-b) - An employee who works for more than one hour in a place where the temperature is between 46°C and 54°C must be paid an allowance of $0.61 per hour.
- An employee who works for more than one hour in a place where the temperature exceeds 54°C must be paid an allowance of $0.74 per hour.
- Height Allowance (clause 17.5 b) - An employee working up to and including the 22nd floor above ground level must be paid an allowance of $0.99 per hour or part thereof. An employee working above the 22nd floor above ground level must be paid an allowance of $2.02 per hour or part thereof.
- First Aid Allowance (clause 17.6 b) - An employee designated as a first aid attendant must be paid an allowance of $15.00 per week.
- Leading Hand Allowance (clause 17.7 b) - An employee in charge of other employees must be paid an allowance per week based on the number of employees they are in charge of, as specified in Table 4 of the award.
- Refuse Collection Allowance (clause 17.8 a-b) - An employee employed for the major portion of their shift to collect, dispose of, or sort refuse, or to feed an incinerator, furnace, or compactor, must be paid a refuse collection allowance of $4.17 per shift.
- Toilet Cleaning Allowance (clause 17.9) - An employee employed for the major portion of any day or shift to clean toilets must be paid a toilet cleaning allowance of $3.28 per shift or $16.15 per week.
Manual in Payroll
- Meal Allowance (clause 17.10 a) i-ii) - If an employee is required to work an additional 2 hours or more and was not advised of that requirement on or before the previous day, they must be paid a meal allowance in accordance with the award. This allowance must be handled manually by payroll.
- Travel Time and Travel Allowance (clause 17.12) - If an employee is required to travel from one workplace to another, the employer must pay the employee for the time spent travelling at the applicable rate as if they were working and cover all associated fares.
- Uniform Allowance (clause 17.13) - If an employee is required to wear a uniform, the employer must reimburse the employee for the cost of purchasing any such uniform (including replacements) that is not supplied or paid for by the employer. This is typically handled as a reimbursement outside of payroll.
Unsupported
The following requirements are currently not supported within Humanforce:
-
Cold Work (clause 17.3 b) - If an employee continues to work for more than 2 hours in a place where the temperature is below 0°C, they are entitled to 20-minute rest period every 2 hours without loss of pay.
- This is solved by just not having the employee clock a break, but Humanforce cannot flag that this break in the circumstance is required.
-
Hot Work Allowance (clause 17.4 c) - If an employee continues to work for more than 2 hours in a place where the temperature exceeds 54°C, they are entitled to 20-minute rest period every 2 hours without loss of pay.
- This is solved by just not having the employee clock a break, but Humanforce cannot flag that this break in the circumstance is required.
Overtime
Automated
The following rules are automated within Humanforce:
- Overtime Flags - In addition to anything falling outside the Ordinary Hours conditions mentioned above, there are no other overtime flags within this award.
- Overtime Rates - Overtime rates are applied according to the award clause 19.3.
Reconfigurable
The following requirements can be reconfigured within scope:
- Time off in Lieu of overtime - As per clause 19.5 a) An employee and employer may agree in writing to the employee taking time off instead of being paid for a particular amount of overtime that has been worked by the employee. Should you wish to pursue this arrangement, a consultant will be able to reconfigure the award such that we pass alternative pay types to payroll that can accrue the leave, which can then be fed back into Humanforce.
Penalty Rates
Automated
The following rules are automated within Humanforce:
- Penalties – Penalty rates are applied according to the award clause 20.2.
Leave Entitlements
Automated
All leave types aligned with the National Employment Standards are made available under the library award in Humanforce. As per best practice, leave accrual for each pay cycle should be handled by payroll, and appropriate leave balances should be synchronised back into Humanforce as part of payroll finalisation.
The following leave types are available:
- Annual Leave
- Sick Leave
- Bereavement Leave
- Carer's Leave
- Compassionate Leave
- Jury Duty
- Unpaid Leave
- Long Service Leave
- Paid Special Leave (intended for Paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave, renaming to suit your business is recommended)
Limitations of this Humanforce Library Award
Broken Shifts (17.2)
- Due to the nature of how Humanforce handles broken shifts, there are some specific cases where a broken shift allowance will not correctly trigger for some longer durations of breaks between the two periods of work. This is because that duration has been set to apply for Minimum Break between shifts cases.
General Applications of Overtime
- There are some known limitations in cases of either pay cycles starting mid week, or cases of Public holidays, where a shift crosses midnight AND that shift also includes overtime. These cases will require manual review. In this instance, crossing into a Public Holiday with overtime should output as expected, starting within a public holiday, crossing midnight out of it and having overtime will not.
Using this Humanforce Library Award
The below outlines any key pieces you'll need to be aware of when using this award with respect to how they align with the modern award, such as particular shift types a roster manager may need to utiise and their applications.
Call Back (19.6) / Call Back (Non-Cleaning) (19.7)
- Both are triggered by unique and specific Shift types which work slightly differently due to the specific nature of each’s requirements
Future Plans and Award Roadmap
The following planned development or known future changes may require updates to this award configuration:
Higher Duties
Currently, the award is configured for a single employment level scenario where employees receive a code like “ORD” (Ordinary pay rate code), and the payroll system determines the appropriate pay rate based on the employee's level. Future enhancements may include support for higher duties assignments and pay rates.
Changelog
You can find the changelog for this award here.
Library Award Test Documentation
You will find the test cases for this library award's current version available as an attachment to this document. For any enhancements to this library award, these tests will be re-run and updated as part of the enhancement process.
This testing is a result of running all of the available award profiles through an exhaustive series of test cases to validate the award output for anything from simple workweeks to the most complex of cases, and everything in between.
An instructional guide to assist in helping you better understand how these tests are run and how you can interpret the files available here will be made available and linked here soon!