Health Professionals and Support Services Award

Do the stream check first. This award can cover very different employees within one health business, but it does not cover everyone in a clinic or practice.

• Coverage turns on whether the employer's business or activity is in delivering health care, medical services or dental services, and on the employee's classification.
• The award reaches both support services employees and health professional employees, but it excludes medical practitioners.
• On-hire and group training arrangements can be covered, subject to the standard exclusions.
• If more than one award could apply, clause 4.7 points to the classification most appropriate to the work and the environment.

Classification needs active management. Write it down, review it over time, and do not assume every support role sits in the same pay structure.

• Employees must be classified under Schedule A and advised in writing of their classification at commencement and whenever it changes.
• Clause 16.1 sets progression rules for classifications with more than one pay point.
• Support services roles are not all treated the same way under the rate structure, so do not assume every non-professional role can be grouped together.
• The classification notice should match payroll and any later reclassification decision.

The engagement rules are straightforward, but they still need to be documented. The private medical practice cleaner exception is easy to miss.

• Tell employees at engagement whether they are full-time, part-time or casual.
• Part-time employees need a written regular pattern including weekly hours, days and start and finish times.
• Casuals usually have the general minimum engagement, but cleaners in private medical practices have a special shorter minimum.
• Casual loading, overtime and casual conversion issues should be checked against the award and the NES together.

The right roster depends on where the employee works. A clinic, imaging practice and broader health service may not share the same ordinary span.

• Full-time ordinary hours are averaged under the award and daily hours are capped.
• The ordinary span for day workers changes with the setting. Standard day workers, private practices and some imaging settings do not all share the same hours rule.
• Clause 23 also deals with operational allowances that can matter in practice, including on-call, interpreting and some dirty work or heat-related situations.

Keep NES issues, award classification issues and payroll coding separate. Health payroll often fails when those three questions get blurred together.

• The NES still apply alongside the award.
• Requests for flexible working arrangements are dealt with through the NES framework, not as a simple roster change.
• Allowances need to be separately identified in pay records and payslips.

Do not assume that every employee in a health business is automatically covered by this award just because the business delivers health services.

• Enterprise instruments and modern enterprise awards can displace this award for the employees they cover.
• Where more than one award could apply, use the most appropriate classification and work environment test rather than assuming the health setting decides everything.

PR799280, PR799308, PR799465

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

Affected: 16 - Minimum rates for Support Services employees, 17 - Minimum rates for Health Professional employees, 20 - National training wage, 23 - Allowances, Schedule C - Summary of Hourly Rates, Schedule D - Summary of Monetary Allowances, Schedule F - Supported Wage System