Private practice Award coverage

Private practice Award coverage

It can be difficult to determine which Award applies to your employee, especially if the role involves duties covered by different Awards.

Private medical practices often employ staff in a variety of roles. Sometimes selecting the applicable Award is not always straightforward where different duties are involved, and sometimes more than one Award may apply. The most suitable option will depend on the specifics of the employee’s situation. In each situation, the practice must weigh up any financial and administrative burden to the practice against the risk of underpaying its employees which could, in turn, lead to an underpayment claim. Doctors have a responsibility to pay their employees at least the minimum rate of pay.

Employees working in private medical practices are usually covered by one or more of the following Modern Awards:

• Support staff working in a private medical practice are covered by the Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 (HPSSA). The type of employees that may be covered generally include secretaries, receptionists, practice managers, and health professionals.
• Nurses working in a private medical practice and who are principally engaged in nursing/midwifery duties are covered by the Nurses Award 2010.  
• Private practices which specialise in cosmetic medicine may employ beauty therapists to perform a range of hair, skin, facial and body treatments. These employees are usually covered by the Hair and Beauty Industry Award 2020 (HBIA).

Which Award applies?

When determining which Award applies, we recommend you review each Award to determine the employee’s classification and minimum rate of pay. 

Sometimes, you may have employees performing a hybrid of two different roles which:

• May fall within more than one classification under an Award. For example, an employee who performs duties as an imaging technician but also performs receptionist duties.
• May trigger coverage under two different Awards. For example, an employee who performs a combination of practice manager duties and occasional nursing duties.

The minimum rate of pay under each of the above Awards is determined having regard to that Award’s classification structure. This is outlined at Schedule A of each of the Awards.

The HPSSA classification structure is based upon the competencies of, and duties performed by, the employee. On the other hand, the HBIA has a simple classification structure that is based on the specific qualifications held by the employee. The Nurses Award classification structure is based upon a combination of qualifications held, experience and duties performed.

Award coverage for hybrid roles

The options you may consider for hybrid roles as described above are as follows:

1. Provide the employee with one employment contract but select the Award and classification that corresponds with the higher rate of pay. The simplest and safest option is to classify and pay your employee under the Award and classification that has the higher rate of pay.  This is the most risk averse option with the lowest level of exposure to an underpayment claim. It is also the simplest option from an administrative point of view. However, it may come with the highest financial cost to the business. 

2. Provide the employee with two different employment contracts, with each contract referring to a different Award and a different rate of pay. Sometimes an employee’s duties may vary so much that an employer may not be able to easily classify the employee within the terms of one Award. In this case, you may decide to issue two employment contracts for each role with a different Award or classification for each role. 
This option will involve a higher administrative burden and will only be appropriate where the different roles performed can be separated and easily distinguished from each other. This could involve splitting the days of work according to the duties and paying according to the role performed – for example, practice manager on certain days, and the nursing role on the other days.
If your employee will be performing different duties throughout the day, we would not recommend this option given the difficulty to distinguish between the tasks performed and to ensure payment at the appropriate wage rate. In this case, we recommended that you engage the employee at the higher wage rate in accordance with option 1.

3. Provide the employee with one employment contract under the Award and classification that is “most appropriate” to the work performed by the employee and pay for “higher duties” where performed.  The Awards acknowledge that sometimes an employee may perform work that falls under two separate classifications. Where you have an employee appointed to one role but occasionally performing the duties of another role, you will need to establish the “principle” or “major and substantial” purpose of the employee’s employment, and then consider paying the employee at the higher wage rate for any higher duties performed. If the majority of the employee’s role will be spent performing the classification with the higher wage rate, then is it recommended that you engage the employee at that classification.

For assistance in assessing your options and other employment-related enquiries, please contact our Workplace Relations Team on +61 2 9439 8822 or workplace@amansw.com.au

Contributed by AMA (NSW)’s Workplace Relations Advisor, Felicity Buckley.