Business Equipment Award

Coverage under this award is narrower than many small businesses expect. It is built around a defined equipment sales and service industry.

• Check that the business is actually selling or leasing covered business equipment and installing or servicing it.
• Do not assume every technology, electronics or office support business falls here. The exclusions for managers, training course participants, electrical contractors and manufacturers are important.
• If another award might also be relevant, the employee sits under the classification most appropriate to the work and the environment in which it is normally performed.

The award uses simple engagement categories, but each one has different payroll and rostering consequences that need to be set up from the start.

• Full-time employees average 38 ordinary hours per week.
• Part-time employees average less than 38 hours, work a regular pattern, and are paid the minimum hourly rate for each ordinary hour worked.
• Casuals can be terminated on an hour's notice, receive a 25% loading, and must be paid overtime under the award when they work it.
• Each casual attendance must be at least 2 consecutive hours.

This award gives a fair amount of roster flexibility, but only if the agreement and notice rules are observed and recorded.

• For day workers, ordinary hours average 38 per week, no more than 8 hours per day, between 6.30 am and 6.30 pm Monday to Friday.
• By agreement, the spread can move up to one hour earlier or later, ordinary hours can include Saturday and Sunday, and days can extend up to 12 hours exclusive of meal breaks.
• Once arrangements are set, the employer can alter them with one week's notice, by mutual agreement, or with 24 hours' notice in an emergency.
• Twelve hour days or shifts require suitable roster arrangements and adequate breaks.

Classification and allowance settings are central under this award because many field service roles have extra payroll consequences beyond the base rate.

• Schedule A starts with a technical services stream that moves from routine assembly work through higher technician work.
• The minimum rate tables separate technical and clerical streams, so the stream choice matters even where day to day tasks overlap.
• The award contains leading hand, first aid, representation and service centre allowances, and transport related rules for technical and clerical employees.

Flexible hours under this award are not meant to be verbal or informal. The record itself is part of compliance under the clause structure.

• Any majority or individual agreement under the flexibility clause has to be recorded in the time and wages records.
• Rosters must specify the commencement and finishing times of ordinary working hours.
• That recordkeeping is what proves the business is using the flexible hours model properly.

Field based technical support is where this award often becomes more complex than a basic office payroll setup would suggest.

• Field service employees can attract representation and service centre allowances depending on the role they perform.
• Employees taking responsibility for depot or satellite service centre premises can trigger a specific allowance.
• Where the employer requires transport, the employer must provide and maintain it, subject to the award's vehicle allowance framework.

PR799280, PR799302, PR799459

The current consolidated award incorporates these recent variation determinations. Use the consolidated wording when checking any affected clause, schedule, rate or allowance.

Affected: 14 - Minimum rates, 16 - Exemptions, 17 - Allowances, 20 - Overtime, 21 - Special provisions for dayworkers, 22 - Special provisions for shiftworkers, Schedule B - Summary of Hourly Rates of Pay, Schedule C - Summary of Monetary Allowances, Schedule D - Supported Wage System