CPSU members who work part time in the ABC have identified instances of underpayment arising from the misapplication of Personal Carers Leave. It is unclear if these instances of underpayment are one-off errors or happening more widely across the ABC. Please read the following information and share with your part time colleagues.
Part time employees are entitled to receive paid Personal/Carers Leave (pro rata) when they are sick or need to care for a family member (Clause 40.2.1 ABC Enterprise Agreement 2019-2022):
• Generally, part time employees are eligible to receive paid PCL on shifts that form part of their ordinary hours, and unpaid PCL on shifts that are additional hours or overtime. See next points.
• Ordinary Hours (also known as Part Time Work Agreement Hours or PTWA) are your contracted hours of part time work per fortnight. Any PCL that is sought when working your ordinary hours must be paid leave, so long as you have the PCL accrued. (Clause 15.3)
• Additional Hours (PTAH) & Overtime are hours that are in addition to your ordinary hours of part time work per fortnight. Part time additional hours are in excess of your ordinary hours up to the equivalent hours for a full-time employee and attract a 20% loading. Overtime is any hours above the equivalent hours for a fulltime employee. The ABC is not required to pay PCL on Additional Hours or Overtime shifts but you are eligible to take unpaid PCL. (Clause 15.4)
The CPSU has been made aware that some ABC managers are not doing the right thing around paying PCL on ordinary shifts. Things to look out for and report if they are happening to you could include:
• Managers changing your rosters to avoid paying you PCL. For example: You were scheduled to work your ordinary hours on Tuesday and additional part time hours on Thursday. You called in sick on Tuesday. The ABC cancelled your Tuesday shift or marked it as an RFD and changed your PTAH shift on Thursday to ordinary hours, thereby denying you paid Personal/Carers Leave (because you were sick on a shift that was originally ordinary hours on your published roster.
• Managers or payroll changing the dates of your ordinary hours and PTAH on your timesheets to avoid paying you PCL on shifts that were rostered as ordinary hours. Part time employees are strongly urged to check your pay slips each fortnight to make sure the information marries up to your hours of work.
• Managers offering you PTAH within the same roster cycle that you sought paid PCL, to avoid paying your PCL. For example: After you have taken a shift of paid PCL, your manager asks you to work a shift of PTAH, but then the rosters are altered to show this new shift as ordinary hours rather than PTAH. This is particularly worrying because it has the effect of denying you access to your entitlement to paid PCL, but also means you are working PTAH without receiving the 20% loading.
What the CPSU is doing to ensure the ABC follows the rules:
1.Improvement to ABC Rostering and Compliance: As part of ABC Bargaining which is happening now, CPSU members are seeking for part time ordinary hours, additional hours and overtime to be clearly identified on published rosters. This will help to prevent the types of roster changes discussed above from occurring. The CPSU is also seeking stronger signals from the Managing Director about the need for all ABC employees including managers to comply with the ABC Enterprise Agreement.
2. Formal Inquiry with the ABC: The CPSU has written to your employer formally raising our concerns and seeking further investigations into part time work arrangements to ensure any PCL that was not paid is remedied promptly.
3. Informing Part Time Employees of their rights and encouraging them to join the CPSU. Going it alone does not serve part time employees particularly well when these sorts of things are happening and workers do not even know about it. Recent history has proven your employer does not have the systems or operational practices in place to ensure the ABC is complying with the rules. ABC employees need the advocacy and protection of a strong and effective union. Click here to join the CPSU.
