Award | Overtime – easyemployer support

1) Overview
2) Manage overtime in the award
3) Create a new overtime period

i) Overtime period details
ii) Overtime triggers
iii) Overtime rates

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1) Overview

Overtime is typically a penalty rate that is triggered in an award once specific conditions are met. This usually results in an increase to the rate multiplier for users.

Overtime is required by many (if not all) awards. Correct configuration of overtime is important to ensure users are being paid correctly for any additional hours worked.

2) Manage overtime in the award

Overtime needs to be configured in each base award pay group as there is no concept of overtime triggers in the overarching award.

To access the overtime section follow these steps:

Click Organisation.
Click Awards.
Select an award.
Under the Base award pay group section, click on a pay group (e.g., Casual).
Click Edit award pay group (located below the Award pay group information section).
Find the Overtime Periods section.

A list of overtime triggers in this award pay group will appear here. If this section is blank then Overtime periods need to be added (see 3) Create new overtime periods below).

Overtime triggers will be displayed as either 'Daily' or 'Weekly'. Daily triggers are dependant on the number of hours users work in a day and weekly triggers depend on the accumulated hours users work in a week.

Understanding the different segments of the overtime periods section is important as it determines when overtime will trigger. Below are definitions of each column in this section:

Period - The period of time to which the overtime trigger is confined.
Included shift range - The specific days included in specific overtime trigger outcomes. As an example, shifts scheduled from Monday - Friday have the same overtime outcomes but shifts on Saturday and Sunday have different overtime rates set.
Trigger(s) - The overtime trigger. The number of hours a user can work before overtime is triggered.
Overtime rates - This section is the result of the value in the trigger column being breached. This can be broken into different segments (1.5x for the first two (2) hours and 2.0x for ever hour worked after that).
Actions - This section is used to modify or delete overtime periods that have already been created.

3) Create new overtime periods

Follow the steps in the previous section to edit the award pay group where the overtime periods have to be created, then click Create overtime period.

This will display a popup box with 3 headings: Overtime period details, Overtime triggers, and Overtime rates.

i) Overtime period details

Period - Options available for selection are 'Weekly' and 'Daily'.
Identifier - used to specify which overtime period is used on weekly rates.
Prioritise daily overtime on initial trigger - Ticked = Yes / un-ticked = No. This setting is used for shifts that trigger both the daily and weekly overtime periods on the same shift, so they are processed through the daily overtime period. All future shifts going into overtime will be processed by the weekly overtime period.
Days - Options available for selection include 'All days' and 'Specific days'. Selecting 'All days' will apply the overtime conditions to all days Monday - Sunday. Whereas 'Specific days' will cause a check boxes to appear that list all days from Monday - Sunday and additional options for handling public holidays.

ii) Overtime triggers

Trigger on - Options available for selection are 'Max weekly hours (from standard days)' or 'Specific number of hours'. If the 'Max weekly hours (from standard days)' option is selected, then the trigger will be the value set for users in the Max weekly hours section of the award (unless overridden for a user). If the 'Specific number of hours' option is selected, additional fields will appear. These fields are dependant on the 'Period' setting. If 'Period' is set to weekly, then the additional fields will include 'standard weekly hours', 'Average over weeks', and 'starting from'. If 'Period' is set to daily, only one additional field will be displayed titled 'Standard daily hours'.
Weekly rostered hours - If enabled, overtime will trigger when a user exceeds their rostered hours. This means that if a user is rostered for 30 hours and work 31, overtime will trigger for the final hour irrespective of their standard hours.
Break not taken on time - Whether to generate overtime until the user takes their scheduled break. or until the shift ends. If a threshold is specified the overtime will only occur after this time past the scheduled break time starts.
Handle hours in this overtime period separately - This option is used if an overtime period should count its own trigger hours separately from overtime periods of the same type. This should only be turned on if employees have multiple distinct working periods in a single week (this is rare).
Separate shifts into their own overtime period - The minimum hours between shifts required for a single shift to have its own overtime period (this value is usually only used for daily overtime periods). By default, this should be left unticked, as a single overtime period should be used in most cases.
Overtime in each day stands alone - Ticking this box means that overtime in each day stands alone in weekly overtime periods. This means that if weekly overtime has triggered for the week, the rates applied for this overtime period will be applied separately to each day.
Skip entitlement accrual rates when forcing overtime - When forcing a shift into overtime, either by setting it on the actual shift or by triggering the overtime code, any additional entitlement accrual will be skipped.
Count public holiday days as normal days - If ticked, public holiday shift parts will have their hours counted towards total overtime hours.

iii) Overtime rates

The first step is to add a rate for the overtime period being defined. Click Add rate on the right hand side of the Overtime rates headline.

Populate the four fields in the Add overtime rate popup window:

Day - 'Mon' meaning Monday is the only option that can be selected here unless the 'Use the same rates from Monday to Friday' box is unticked (under Overtime rates). If this box has been unticked, the remaining days (Tue, Wed, Thu, and Fri) will be available for selection.
Hour period - Options include 'All hours' and 'First x hours' when the checkbox is unticked. This is where times can be defined for overtime periods: For example, the first 2 hours of overtime could be set to pay at a rate of 1.5x. While subsequent hours need to be paid at 2.0x. If this is the case, multiple periods will need to be entered and saved individually until overtime periods have been fully defined.
Category - Select the payroll category that this overtime period should trigger. These need to be added to the award and base award pay group prior to creating the overtime period. All payroll categories available in the base award pay group will appear on this list.
Loading category - If a loading category has been configured and is available in the payroll categories, it will be available for selection here.

Once the first day or period has been defined, additional overtime periods can be added. The Add rate option will disappear when there are no further periods to define.

The remaining settings in this section are:

Use the same rates from Monday to Friday - If this box is ticked then additional days will not appear on the 'Day' section of the 'Add rate' popup. If this has been unticked, the remaining days (Tue, Wed, Thu, and Fri) will be available for selection.
Saturday rates - Options available for selection include 'Use own rates' and 'Copy from' another day. If using 'Own rates', Saturday will be available for selection in the 'Day' section of 'Add rates'.
Sunday rates -Options available for selection include 'Use own rates' and 'Copy from' another day. If using 'Own rates', Sunday will be available for selection in the 'Day' section of 'Add rates'.
Public holiday rates - Options available for selection include 'Use own rates' and 'Copy from' another day. If using 'Own rates', PH will be available for selection in the 'Day' section of 'Add rates'.