What are proper hours?
We know that a standard working week in Australia is 38 hours. You may not know they need to be completed inside a specific spread of hours.
The Building and Construction General On-site Award [MA000020] says 7am to 6pm Monday to Friday.
The Clerks Private Sector Award [MA000002] 7.00 am and 7.00 pm on Monday to Friday and 7.00 am and 12.30 pm on Saturday.
Working outside of these hours can attract penalty or over time rates.
What if your workers request flexible working arrangements? Can they leave work early and catch up after they put the kids to bed? They employer may still need to pay penalty rates to their workers, which sounds like employers are being penalised for supporting their workers life balance. Perhaps its time to investigate Individual Flexibility Arrangements (IFA).
Fairwork says: An IFA is a written agreement made with an individual employee to change the effect of certain terms in the employee’s award or registered agreement. It is used to make alternative arrangements to meet the needs of the employer and the individual employee.
However, an IFA can’t be used to reduce or remove an employee’s entitlements and must leave an employee better off overall when compared to their award or registered agreement. There’s also a limit to what terms and conditions an IFA can change.
Read more here Fairwork IFA
If you are allowing your team to work outside and not their ‘proper hours’ you may be liable for overtime or penalty rates.
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