🎯 This article is relevant to any Planday customer who has enabled the Clerks Award on Planday. It provides an overview of the relevant functionality in Planday and the content of Planday’s built-in award interpretation feature (“Award Library”) for the Clerks Award and links to additional guides to ease the set-up process of your Planday organisation.

If you’re unsure of the correct Award coverage for your company or your employees, we encourage you to visit the Fair Work Commission Awards finder page or contact the Fair Work Ombudsman to discuss this further. Getting this right is very important and sets the foundation for paying your employees correctly. You should also seek any independent legal advice as appropriate for your business.

Please also note that Planday focuses on the most common time and attendance related parts of the Clerks Award and does not cover all award requirements, for example allowances, shift work and some overtime. Please refer to the schedule in our T&Cs and this Help Centre article for more information about the award exclusions.

Changing or overriding award configurations

Set out below is how Planday configures award requirements relating to contract rules, break rules, shift types and overtime. Whilst you are able to change the hours or rules specified, please note that overriding or changing these configurations could be in breach of your compliance obligations. You should seek independent legal advice as appropriate for your business.

Link to the official award: https://awardviewer.fwo.gov.au/award/show/MA000002

Employee types

‘Employee types’ are used to define the employee’s employment basis. This is important to ensure that your employees are covered by the appropriate rules and automations in Planday.

Action required: Map your employees to the correct employee type. Learn more about Employee types in this article.

Name of Employee type

Full time

Part time

Casual

Classifications

‘Classifications’ can be used to set your employees’ minimum hourly rates as per the Award. Planday supports the most common classifications of the Award which are pre-set for your convenience as detailed below.

Note: Casual loading for casual employees is added automatically and separately with a payroll supplement.

Action required: Assign a classification to your employees. Learn more about classifications in this article.

Name of Classification	Level
Adult	Level 1-5 + call centre
20 years	Level 1-5 + call centre
19 years	Level 1-5 + call centre
18 years	Level 1-5 + call centre
17 years	Level 1-5 + call centre
16 years	Level 1-5 + call centre
16 years and under	Level 1-5 + call centre

It’s important to always check the Award and Fair Work’s Pay and Conditions Tool (P.A.C.T) if you’re unsure of the correct classification(s) to allocate to your business. Getting this right is very important and sets the foundation for paying your employees correctly. Alternatively contact the Fair Work Ombudsman to discuss this in more detail.

Ordinary hours and Span of hours

This outlines and forms the foundational amount of hours worked by an employee before overtime is triggered, as described by the award. These are supported in Planday with ‘Contract rules’.

Contract rules

You can define each individual employee’s ordinary hours by using Contract Rules and visually see how you’re distributing the hours in the schedule. These rules set the foundation for applying overtime rates (covered further down).

Action required:

Review your part time employees agreed/contracted hours of work in line with the relevant award clauses.
Map your employees to the correct contract rules, or create/customise rules relevant to your circumstances. Learn more in this Help centre article.

Click here if you want to learn how to change the rules to meet your specific requirements.

Contract rule	Weekly interval	Regular working hours	Max hours per day
Full-time	38 hours per week*	Span/spread of hours according to Award: Mon-Fri = 7am-7pm Sat = 7am-12:30pm	10 hours
Part-time**	20 hours per week	Agreed working hours: Mon-Fri = 7am-11am (example only)	10 hours
Casual	38 hours per week	Span/spread of hours according to Award: Mon-Fri = 7am-7pm Sat = 7am-12:30pm	10 hours

* If the hours considered to be full time by the business is less than 38 hours per week, the pre-configured contract rules will need to be updated to reflect this.

** Important

For part-time employees:

You will need to review and update the contract rule when assigning this to part-time employees to ensure it is in line with their employee contract or agreement.
- Alternatively you can update the settings of the contract rule before assigning it to employees. Learn how in Overview of Contract rules and Overtime.
The Contract rule for part-time employees available in Planday is a default configuration provided as an example only.

Break rules

‘Break rules’ allow you to automatically apply a set of breaks to the shifts in your schedule according to award specifications. You can also add/remove additional breaks and edit them manually on a shift-by-shift basis.

Learn more about break rules in this Help centre article.

Length of shift	Break(s) that automatically apply
More than 3 hours (but less than 5)	1 x 10 min paid rest break
More than 5 hours (but less than 8)	1 x 10 min paid rest break + 1 x 30 min unpaid meal break
More than 8 hours	2 x 10 min paid Rest break + 1 x 30 min unpaid meal break

Action required:

Review the pre-defined break rules under Settings > Schedule > Breaks and verify that the breaks are set up in accordance with how your business operates. Pay special attention to the start and end times of the breaks particularly when using the ‘Timesheets’ feature with pre-defined break rules.

We encourage you to ensure you review disbursement of breaks in shifts in the ‘Timesheets’ feature and adjust them accordingly.

Getting this right is very important and sets the foundation for paying your employees correctly. Refer to the Award for more information on breaks or alternatively contact the Fair Work Ombudsman to discuss in more detail.

Manual breaks

Note: The settings of break rules only look at individual shifts and not the total hours per day.

Please ensure you review the placement of rest and meal breaks in shifts allocated to employees and update as needed to meet your compliance obligations.

The following scenario(s) can be completed using the ‘Timesheets’ feature once shifts have been completed. To learn more, click here.

Meal break not taken or delayed

If an unpaid meal break is missed or delayed, you’ll manually have to adjust the shift to ensure the 200% penalty is applied. This isn’t automated, and you’ll need to split the shift in the schedule.

To split a shift, you need to adjust the planned shift so it aligns with the hours worked up until the unpaid meal break should have been taken and remove the break. Next you need to add a separate shift with the shift type “Missed meal break” for the hours where penalties apply.

Steps:

Go to the Schedule.
Click on the Shift you need to split.
Edit start and/or end time so it aligns with the worked hours up until the meal break was supposed to be held and remove the break. Click save.
Create a new shift for the hours where penalties apply.
Add start and end time, Shift type “Missed meal break”. Click save.

Where a meal break has been delayed, after adding in “Missed meal break” shift per the last above step:

Create a new shift for the remainder of the hours worked
Add start and end time, select the appropriate Shift type (I.e. “Normal”, “Overtime” etc.). Click save.

Shift types

By using ‘Shift types you can label particular shifts. For example when an employee is on leave (Annual leave, Compassionate leave, etc.) or to label when an employee is not working on a public holiday, however is required to be paid ordinary hours for that time.

Learn more about Shift types in this article.

Name of Shift type	Area of use
Absent	For Absence (not award specific)
Absent - Public holiday	Use this shift type when your employee is absent on a public holiday and should be paid for their ordinary hours of work (only applicable for F.T and P.T)
Annual leave (paid)	Used together with the Leave and Absence module
Compassionate leave (CAS - unpaid)	Used together with the Leave and Absence module
Compassionate leave (FT/PT - paid)	Used together with the Leave and Absence module
Late	For Lateness (not award specific)
Missed meal break	Use from when the meal break was supposed to start, until meal break is allowed
Overtime	Use when your employee should be paid overtime, E.g. when work is required in excess of rostered hours
Overtime on Public Holiday	Use when your employee is working on a Public Holiday and should be paid overtime
Personal / Carer’s leave (FT/PT - paid)	Used together with the Leave and Absence module
Personal / Carer’s leave (unpaid)	Used together with the Leave and Absence module
Sick No Pay	For Sickness (not award specific)
Time Off	For Time off (not award specific)
Training	To track training for Apprentices (no penalties or Overtime applies)
Unpaid leave	Used together with the Leave and Absence module
Substituted day	Use when employee works on both Public Holiday and the substituted day
Work without break	Use when an employee is working overtime and has not had 10 consecutive hours off duty before resuming ordinary hours

Working time rules

‘Working time rules’ provides you with a notification if you roster a shift that is in conflict with the predefined Working time rules. This prompt allows you to make an informed decision on what to do next. Planday supports some of the most common rostering restrictions in line with the Award and has pre-set rules for your convenience which are detailed below.

Name of working time rule	Applies to	Overtime or Rostering Restriction	Notes
Maximum 10 Ordinary hours per day	All	Rostering restriction / Overtime	Warning will appear when attempting to schedule more than 10 hours in conflict with minimum shift length requirements. Hours in excess of the 10 hours should be recorded as overtime using the ‘Overtime’ shift type
Minimum 3 hours per day	P.T + Casual	Rostering restriction	Warning will appear when attempting to schedule fewer than 3 hours in conflict with minimum shift length requirements. We recommend always scheduling 3 or more hours, and if necessary leaving a comment on the shift if the employee should end their shift earlier.
Minimum 10 hours between ordinary hours	F.T + P.T	Rostering restriction / Overtime	Warning will appear when attempting to schedule a shift that is fewer than 10 ordinary hours from the end time of the previous shift scheduled. Hours less than the 10 ordinary hours between shifts should be recorded as overtime using the ‘Overtime’ shift type

Overtime

This outlines the overtime as described by the Award*, supported by ‘Contract rules’, ‘Timesheets’, ‘Working time rules’ and ‘Payroll supplements’.

Click here to learn more about approving and managing Overtime using the Timesheets feature.

	Overtime requirement	Supported by	Automatic	Action required
Full-time employees	In excess of ‘ordinary hours’ (Max 38 hours** / week and Max 10 hours / day)	Contract rules, Working time rules, and Timesheets	✅	Suggested automatically in Timesheets
	Outside ‘span of hours’	Contract rules and Timesheets	✅	Suggested automatically in Timesheets
Part-time employees	In excess of their agreed ordinary hours	Contract rules and Timesheets	✅	Suggested automatically in Timesheets
Casual employees	In excess of 38 hours per week	Contract rules and Timesheets	✅	Suggested automatically in Timesheets
	Outside the ‘span of ordinary hours’ for each day	Contract rules and Timesheets	✅	Suggested automatically in Timesheets

* Note: only the most common instances of overtime have associated functionality within Planday and current functionality does not support the averaging of hours across multiple weeks. Please refer to the Awards finder page or contact the Fair Work Ombudsman for information on other situations in which overtime may be applicable.

** If the hours considered to be full time by the business is less than 38 hours per week, the pre-configured contract rules will need to be updated to reflect this.

Payroll supplements

‘Payroll supplements’ in Planday are used to make automatic adjustments to employees’ hourly rates based on set criteria. They are commonly used for overtime and, penalties.

Learn more about Payroll supplements in this article.

Automatically applied using ‘Shift type’

Name	Applies	For
Clerks (MA000002) - Cas. Overtime (Mon-Sat) > 2 h	When more than 2 hours Overtime is performed, Mon-Sat (requires use of shift type ‘Overtime’)	Casual
Clerks (MA000002) - Cas. Overtime (Mon-Sat) 0 - 2	When Overtime is performed, Mon-Sat (requires use of shift type ‘Overtime’)	Casual
Clerks (MA000002) - Cas. Overtime (Public Holiday)	When Overtime is performed on a Public Holiday (requires use of shift type ‘Overtime on Public Holiday’)*	Casual
Clerks (MA000002) - Cas. Overtime (Sunday)	When Overtime is performed on a Sunday (requires use of shift type ‘Overtime’)	Casual
Clerks (MA000002) - Overtime (Mon-Sat) > 2 hr	When more than 2 hours Overtime is performed, Mon-Sat (requires use of shift type ‘Overtime’)	F.T
Clerks (MA000002) - Overtime (Mon-Sat) 0 - 2	When Overtime is performed, Mon-Sat (requires use of shift type ‘Overtime’)	F.T
Clerks (MA000002) - Overtime (Public Holiday)	When Overtime is performed on a Public Holiday (requires use of shift type ‘Overtime on Public Holiday’)*	F.T
Clerks (MA000002) - Overtime (Sunday)	When Overtime is performed on a Sunday (requires use of shift type ‘Overtime’)	F.T

Work without break	When ordinary hours is performed on shift type ‘Work without break’ (requires use of shift type ‘Work without break’)	P.T + F.T
Missed meal break	When ordinary hours is performed on shift type ‘Missed meal break’ (requires use of shift type ‘Missed meal break’)	All
Substituted day	When hours is performed on shift type ‘Substituted day’	P.T + F.T

Automatically applied without ‘Shift type’

Name	Applies	For
Casual loading	For all hours worked	Casual
Public Holiday Penalty	When ordinary hours is performed on a Public Holiday*	P.T + F.T
Public Holiday Penalty Casual	When ordinary hours is performed on a Public Holiday*	Casual
Saturday Penalty	When ordinary hours is performed on a Saturday	P.T + F.T
Saturday Penalty Casual	When ordinary hours is performed on a Saturday	Casual

Note: Penalties related to a delayed or missing Meal break are not automated in Planday. You will need to manually adjust the shifts for the appropriate penalty to apply, by splitting the shift to:

Shift type ‘Normal’ for the hours worked prior to the rostered meal break.
Shift type ‘Missed meal break’ until the break was allowed or until the shift has ended. To learn more about it, navigate to ‘Meal break not taken or delayed’.

* Public Holidays

Action required: Note that this requires you to set up a Public Holiday calendar that is relevant for your State/region and your employees. Learn more about how to create a Public Holiday Calendar in this article.

If using the Xero integration to Planday, you will need to review which setup suits to ensure public holiday hours are sent from Planday to Xero correctly. Learn more in this article.

See related articles:

How to set up your own employment terms

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