Introduction
This guide provides an overview of how the Humanforce Suite assists in meeting the requirements of the Social Community Home Care and Disability Services (SCHADS) Award [MA000100]. 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 Social Community Home Care and Disability 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 SCHADS 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 SCHADS Award on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.
This guide was last reviewed on May 13th, 2024.
What Type of Employee/Employer is this Award For?
This award is intended for employers with employees covered and supported by the Social Community Home Care and Disability Services (SCHADS) Award [MA000100].
Configuration Notes:
- This Library Award covers the follow Award profiles
- SCHADS – FT
- SCHADS – PT
- SCHADS – CAS
- SCHADS – FT Shiftwork
- SCHADS – PT Shiftwork
- SCHADS – CAS Shiftwork
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 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:
- Clothing and Equipment Allowance
- Laundering (other)
- First Aid Allowance (Full Time)
- First Aid Allowance (Part Time)
- Heat 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 - The award supports a standard X hours per period (38 weekly, 76 fortnightly) and does not as a standard install support averaging over periods that are not aligned to your pay cycle.
*2 - Part time averaging is solved by the employee's Roster Max Hours number. Changes to this mid pay cycle can present issues.
*3 - The Library award install covers the 3 hour circumstance and can be modified by a Humanforce consultant should the 2 hour circumstance be required.
*4 - The library award has been set up for the 2 hour circumstance here found in 28.1 a i) and can be edited by a Humanforce consultant should the 3 hour circumstance (28.1 a ii) be appropriate.
*5 - Should it be appropriate to count a broken shift as time worked, the shift will need to be edited such that this is considered time worked for calculation purposes.
*6 - 24 Hour Care requires the appropriate Shift Type to be selected by a Roster Manager, Sleepovers require the Roster Manager to select Non-Attended Shift from within the Roster, On Call has both a Shift Type and Non-Attended as a requirement.
*7 - These Allowances first require being enabled via the employee qualification, from there will appear on every shift within any limitations such as weekly caps on dollar amounts. A Humanforce consultant can adjust this if there is a better setup for you, such a Heat Allowance being moved to a role.
*8 - Part day Public Holidays and Overtime in a regular case may present issues for non-shiftworkers. In the case of 24 hour care, this will present issues and is not yet considered as supported within the library award.
Hours of Work
Ordinary Hours
Automated
The following rules are automated within Humanforce:
- As per clause 10.2 Full-time employment, A full-time employee is one who is engaged to work 38 hours per week or an average of 38 hours per week.
- As per clause 10.3 b) is automated and makes use of the Employee's roster Max Hours setting
- As per clause 10.4) Casual employment A casual employee will be paid per hour calculated at the rate of 1/38th of the weekly rate appropriate to the employee’s classification. In addition, a loading of 25% of that rate will be paid. This is automated within the library award.
- Minimum payments for part-time and casual employees (10.5) is automated, however there may be exceptions for you based on the type of employees you have in the business, that a Humanforce consultant will need to adjust for.
- Span of Hours (25.2) is automated, inclusive of the Shiftwork (29.2) based penalties that apply for Afternoon shift, Night shift, and public holiday shift.
- 24 hour care (25.8 d and e) are automated through use of a shift type within Humanforce. However, please take note below of the unsupported elements critical to 24 hour care around consent that Humanforce presently does not support noted below.
Manual in Humanforce
- As Humanforce is missing the functionality for consent and consent to vary contracted hours (10.3 e and f), the requests must be handled independently of humanforce and then manually edited within as appropriate.
(e) The agreement made pursuant to clause 10.3(c) may subsequently be varied by agreement between the employer and employee in writing. Any such agreement may be ongoing or for a specified period of time.
(f) An employer must not require a part-time employee to work additional hours in excess of their guaranteed hours. However, an employee may agree to work hours that are additional to their guaranteed hours.
Manual in Payroll
- 24 hour care (25.8 c) is considered manual as it requires splitting shift sections up to proportion any worked time and sleep time as two separate independent shifts
Reconfigurable
The following requirements can be reconfigured within scope:
- As above: Minimum payments for part-time and casual employees (10.5) is automated, however there may be exceptions for you based on the type of employees you have in the business, that a Humanforce consultant will need to adjust for.
Unsupported
The following requirements are currently not supported within Humanforce:
- 24 hour care b and f) are not supported due to their specifics around the required consent not current possible within Humanforce.
Rostering General Guidelines
Automated
The following rostering rules are automated within Humanforce:
Breaks
Automated
The following break rules are automated within Humanforce:
- Meal Breaks (27.1 a and b) are automated within Humanforce and you will be prompted when putting breaks in via the User Interface that a break is appropriate if a shift is long enough.
Not Supported
The following break rules are not supported within Humanforce:
- Meal Breaks (27.1 b and c) are not supported, because of the way c works, this makes it impossible to solve b for all cases. This means if you wish to make an assumption that c never occurs, a Humanforce consultant can reconfigure and automate b.
Wages and Allowances
Manual in Payroll
Higher Duties (30) is not currently automated and must be handled manually in Payroll
Allowances
Automated
The following allowance is automated within Humanforce:
- Meal allowances (20.5 a) are both automated within the library award, however, an assumption has been made that neither 20.5 b or c are applicable to disqualify this from being paid as part of your next pay run
- Sleepovers (25.7) are automated via the use of a Non-Attended shift within the roster
- On call Allowance (20.11) is automated via the use of a specific shift type AND non-attended shift both being used at the same time. This is to best achieve the appropriate pay needs should work during On Call (otherwise a Call Out) be appropriate and need payment and making that easier within Humanforce.
- Broken shift allowance (20.12) is automated within Humanforce for instances of both one unpaid and two unpaid breaks, including the total span of hours for the single day of work.
Manual in Humanforce
- In the instance of Sleepovers (25.7e), the employee will track a timesheet that will otherwise need to then be assigned by someone with permission to do so to Work During Sleepover to correctly calculate the overtime.
The following allowances require the relevant qualification be enabled on entitled employees profiles:
- Clothing and Equipment Allowance (20.2)
- Laundering (other) (20.3)
- First Aid Allowance (Full Time) (20.6)
- First Aid Allowance (Part Time and Casual) (20.6)
- Heat Allowance (20.9)
Manual in Payroll:
The following allowances as best practice goes have been left to be handled manually within payroll because these are all reimbursements and not ongoing or triggered by the specific work being done, by their nature:
- Repair and replacement of clothing other than uniforms (20.4)
- Travelling, transport and fares (20.7)
- Telephone allowance (20.8)
- Board and lodging (20.10)
Overtime
Automated
The following rules are automated within Humanforce:
- The following elements within 28.1, inclusive of a i, iii, iv and v are automated within the Library Award
- 28.1 b) Part time overtime is all automated within the Library award.
Reconfigurable
The following requirements can be reconfigured within scope:
- If appropriate, the award can be reconfigured appropriate to 28.1 a ii, to adjust the default for overtime thresholds from 2 hours to 3 hours.
Not Supported
The following are Not supported within the Library Award
- 28.2 Time off instead of payment for overtime is not supported within the Library award, but can be configured to be manually achievable by a Humanforce consultant, in a way that best suits your Humanforce solution and configuration.
Penalty Rates
Automated
The following rules are automated within Humanforce:
- Afternoon shift, Night shift, and public holiday shift (29.2) are all automated within Humanforce
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
The following are known limitations of the Library Award in addition anything else considered Not Supported:
-
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.
- The Remote work clause of the award is not yet supported within this profile. Coming in a future enhancement!
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 utilise and their applications.
- Sleepovers (25.7) must be correctly administered with the use of Non Attended shifts and Normal Shift type or 24 Hour Care in that case.
- Work during sleepover will require the employee clocking in while on sleepover and a manager to reassign the shift type of the timesheet to Work During Sleepover to correctly default it to overtime as highlighted within 25.7 e)
- On Call (20.11) must be correctly administered with use of a specific shift type and Non attended shifts
- 24 hour care (25.8) must be correctly administered with use of a specific shift type, including any sleepover time separate from the worked time being split out and also marked as Non Attended
- Failure to do any of the above could result in an employee's entire work week from being miscalculated, not just a single shift, as time could otherwise count as worked when it shouldn't, or the incorrect use of Non Attended may also prevent the employee from clocking in in the case of Work During Sleepover or Call Outs.
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.
Remote Work provisions
Support for this clause will be added in a future award enhancement soon!
Changelog
Date | Event |
23/07/2024 |
Added Support for Part Day Public Holidays Adjusted award design method to allow for a better interpretation (no output changes other than the below) Corrected Min Break to apply to shifts following overtime and added requirement for Part time or Full time employment type. |
28/06/2024 |
Updated rates of Flat Rate Allowances to Rate effective July 1
|
21/06/2024 | Award Republished |
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!