Health Professionals and Support Services Award

Coverage is not determined by the workplace name or the employee's title. Check the employer, the work, the classification and competing instruments.

• Identify whether coverage arises because the employer is in the health industry or because the employee is a classified health professional.
• For industry coverage, confirm that the employer's business or activity involves delivering health care, medical services or dental services and that the employee fits Schedule A.
• Apply the separate rules for on-hire employees and group training apprentices or trainees where relevant.
• Check every exclusion before applying the award.
• If the employer is covered by more than one award, use the classification most appropriate to the employee's work and normal work environment.

The 1 October 2026 structure separates Level 1 classification by qualification and experience from senior health professional classification by role and duties. Existing employees also need the Schedule J.4 translation check.

• Classify support services employees under the structure and definitions in Schedule A.1.
• Give the employee written notice of the classification at commencement and of every later change.
• For a Level 1 health professional from 1 October 2026, identify the applicable AQF level under Schedule B and the employee's years of experience in the profession.
• For health professional Levels 2, 3 and 4, classify by the role and duties in Schedule A.2 rather than carrying forward an old pay-point label.
• Translate any health professional who was classified under the award on 30 September 2026 using Schedule J.4 and compare the translated minimum with the retained minimum rate protection.
• Keep using the applicable support services progression rules for covered support services classifications.

Employment category affects hours, records, minimum engagement, loading and overtime treatment. Document the arrangement before work begins.

• Tell each employee at engagement whether they are full-time, part-time or casual.
• A full-time employee works 38 ordinary hours per week or an average of 38 hours over a fortnight or 4-week period.
• A part-time employee works less than an average of 38 hours per week and has reasonably predictable hours.
• Before a part-time employee starts, record the regular pattern of weekly hours, working days and daily start and finish times in a written agreement.
• Record each agreed variation to the part-time pattern in writing and apply the relevant casual minimum engagement where the employee is casual.

Rosters must reflect the correct span of hours, daily limit and break entitlements for the type of workplace involved and the hours actually worked.

• For a full-time employee, ordinary hours average 38 per week over a fortnight or 4-week period, with no more than 10 ordinary hours in one day excluding meal breaks.
• The general day-work span is 6.00 am to 6.00 pm, Monday to Friday.
• Private medical, dental, pathology, physiotherapy, chiropractic and osteopathic practices have the alternative spans stated in clause 13.2(b). Private medical imaging practices have separate rules in clauses 13.2(c) and 13.2(d).
• An employee working more than 5 hours is entitled to an unpaid meal break of 30 to 60 minutes. An employee working no more than 6 hours may elect to forgo it with the employer's consent.
• Provide a paid 10-minute tea break in each 4 hours worked. By agreement, applicable tea breaks may be combined into one paid 20-minute break.

Out-of-hours contact must be managed consistently with the statutory right to disconnect, including the specific on-call contact provision in clause 13A.4.

• Recognise the employee's statutory right to refuse work-related contact outside working hours unless the refusal would be unreasonable.
• Do not directly or indirectly prevent an employee from exercising the right to disconnect.
• Use the dispute pathway in section 333N of the Fair Work Act if a disagreement arises about whether a refusal is unreasonable or about the operation of section 333M.
• Clause 13A.4 permits contact with an employee who receives the on-call allowance in clause 23.2(d) where the contact is to notify the employee that they must attend or perform work.

Classify every worked hour before payroll as ordinary time, overtime, weekend work or shiftwork and apply the non-cumulative rules.

• For a full-time employee, check overtime when work exceeds ordinary hours or 10 hours in a shift.
• For a part-time employee, also check work beyond ordinary hours unless the agreed pattern was varied under clause 10.3, work beyond 10 hours in a shift and work beyond the applicable average-hours limit.
• For a casual employee, check work beyond 10 hours in a shift, 38 hours in a week or 76 hours in a fortnight.
• Use the separate overtime provisions for permanent and casual employees. Casual overtime already accounts for the casual loading.
• Do not add clause 26 penalties or loadings to overtime where the award says the overtime payment substitutes for them. Apply weekend and shiftwork provisions only to the hours that meet their conditions.

Overtime can affect both pay and the following shift. The required rest period must be checked before the employee resumes work.

• Provide an employee who works overtime with 10 consecutive hours off duty between finishing work on one day and starting on the next, without loss of pay for ordinary hours.
• If the employer instructs the employee to resume work without the required rest, apply the special payment rule until the employee is released from duty.
• Review the next roster whenever overtime creates a risk that the rest period will be shortened.

Allowance entitlement depends on the work required and the conditions encountered. Capture those facts during each pay period.

• Check whether the employee was required to be on-call or to perform occasional interpreting duties.
• Check whether the employee handled qualifying nauseous linen or performed work that was unusually dirty or offensive for the classification.
• Where work continues for more than 2 hours in temperatures exceeding 46 degrees Celsius, provide 20 minutes of paid rest after every 2 hours worked.
• The employer is responsible for determining the temperature for the heat provision.

Annual leave payroll requires the NES entitlement and the award's loading and shiftworker provisions to be considered together.

• Use the NES for the basic annual leave entitlement and then apply the award's additional rules.
• For the additional-leave rule, a shiftworker is an employee regularly rostered to work Sundays and public holidays.
• Apply the award's annual leave loading for a non-shiftworker.
• For a shiftworker, compare the ordinary annual leave loading with the weekend and shift penalties the employee would have received and apply the higher outcome.

PR814029

From the first full pay period starting on or after 1 October 2026, PR814029 introduces a new health professional classification and minimum-rate structure. Employers should classify Level 1 employees by the applicable AQF level and professional experience, classify Levels 2 to 4 by role and duties, and apply Schedule J.4 to employees who were already classified on 30 September 2026.

Affected: 2 - Definitions, 17 - Minimum rates for Health Professional employees, Schedule A - Classification Definitions, Schedule B - Common Health Professionals and Standard Minimum Qualifications, Schedule C - Summary of Hourly Rates, Schedule D - Summary of Monetary Allowances, Schedule J - Classification Translation Arrangements

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