Educational Services (Schools) General Staff Award

Classification and coverage should be checked together, because the service group affects both the roster rules and later payroll treatment.

• Confirm that the employee is genuinely general staff rather than a teacher, principal, deputy principal or excluded senior administrative role.
• Use the actual work being done to place the employee in the correct service group.
• Remember that the award can also extend to on-hire employees and to apprentices and trainees supplied through group training while they perform covered work.

The written agreement is the foundation for lawful term-time, part-year and part-time arrangements under this award. Without it, later payroll decisions become hard to defend.

• Tell each employee at engagement whether they are full-time, part-time or casual and what their classification is.
• For part-time staff, put the hours worked each day, days worked, number of school-year weeks worked, and actual start and finish times in writing.
• Record any agreed variation to that pattern in writing as well.
• Use the same discipline for term-time only arrangements as for any other part-time pattern.

Non-term unpaid weeks are permitted, but only on the award's terms and with the correct contract wording and service treatment.

• If leave without pay is used during non-term weeks, the contract must specify that arrangement in writing.
• Those non-term periods still count as service for accrued leave purposes and do not break continuity.
• If appropriate work is available during that period, the employer needs to consider the award rule rather than assuming the employee simply remains away from work.

This award lets one school run several different ordinary-hours models at once, so rostering has to be tailored by service group and by whether the employee is a shiftworker or annualised boarding supervisor.

• Roster ordinary hours by service group, because the spread differs across classroom support, administration, trades, childcare, nursing, gardening, outdoor education, instructional and boarding-related work.
• Keep shiftworkers on the separate clause 15 roster model, including the 7 day roster display rule and change rules.
• If a boarding supervision employee is on the 12 month averaged-hours model in clause 14.5, use separate payroll and rostering settings because several other clauses stop applying.
• Do not assume one school-wide roster template will comply for everyone.

Casual and part-time staffing can be flexible under this award, but only within tightly defined minimum engagement, additional-hours and overtime rules.

• Casual employees have a 2 hour minimum engagement, with a same-day split exception for out of school hours care work.
• Casual overtime is paid under clause 21.2 when overtime is worked.
• Part-time employees can be required to work reasonable additional hours under clause 21.3, but whether those hours are paid at the casual hourly rate or overtime depends on the daily spread, daily hours and weekly or averaged weekly limits.
• Where additional hours are worked on a day the employee is already attending, the 2 hour casual minimum does not apply.

Pay-point progression and allowances should be actively tracked, because both depend on award conditions rather than custom or informal practice.

• Where a classification level has more than one pay point, progression generally occurs after each 12 month period following performance review unless performance has not been satisfactory.
• First aid payments depend on designation by the employer and current recognised qualifications, and some employees are excluded from that allowance.
• Boarding supervision and nursing employees may trigger sleepover rules, including payment for the sleepover itself and separate payment for work performed during the sleepover.

PR799280, PR799356, PR799512

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

Affected: 12 - Leave without pay during non-term weeks, 15 - Ordinary hours of work - shiftworkers, 17 - Minimum rates, 19 - Allowances, Schedule B - Summary of Hourly Rates of Pay, Schedule C - Summary of Monetary Allowances, Schedule E - Supported Wage System