Part-Time Hours of Work

Understand what part-time work actually means and its implications for your business and employees.

Part-Time employment is defined in the Vehicle Repair, Services and Retail Award 2020 (the Award) as an employee who:

(a) is engaged to work less than 38 ordinary hours per week;

(b) has reasonably predictable hours of work; and

(c) receives, on a pro rata basis, equivalent pay and conditions to those of full-time employees who do the same kind of work.

At the time of engagement, the employer and the part-time employee will agree in writing on the following:

(a) the hours worked each day;

(b) which days of the week the employee will work;

(c) the actual starting and finishing times each day;

(d) that any variation must be in writing;

(e) all time worked in excess of agreed hours is paid at overtime rates; and

(f) the times of taking and the duration of meal breaks.

Once a Part-Time employee’s roster is agreed and written in the employment contract, as required under the Award, all time worked in excess of the hours agreed are required to be paid as overtime.

For example:

Fiona works 22.8 hours per week as a Part-Time service receptionist, equating to 7.6 hours over 3 days in the week (Monday-Wednesday). If Fiona is asked to work a Thursday, technically the whole day would be paid as overtime. In this situation, Fiona would be paid 150% for the first 3 hours and 200% thereafter for her additional day of work.

This, of course, does not allow much room for flexibility for either party. The only way the agreed hours can be changed is for the employee to agree to a variation in rostered hours. Members are reminded that any agreement to vary the contracted hours of a Part-Time employee must be done so in writing. Generally, a true variation of agreed hours would be done for long term scenarios where the employee is required to cover another employee’s position due to long term sickness, parental leave, jury duty etc.

However, there may be circumstances where the employee agrees to work additional hours or days as required in order to obtain extra hours. If they are aware that an agreement to vary the hours means that they will not be paid overtime rates for any agreed additional hours, both parties may agree in writing to this variation. An email or text message may suffice as a sensible option in some situations. Employers could also add a clause in the employment contract to reflect this ongoing agreement. For example:

“You and the Employer agree that your actual number of ordinary hours per week may vary between 20 and 37.5 and will be agreed in writing prior to the variation being made.”

Overtime will still be required when working beyond 10 ordinary hours in a day or more than 37.5 hours per week.

Another important factor to remember is that with any variation to the agreed hours of work, the ordinary hours of that employee will be adjusted and annual leave and sick leave will accrue on the new ordinary hours for the period of the variation.

For more assistance in this area, to obtain a template Part-Time contract or if you have any questions relating to this, please contact the MTA Workplace Relations Team on (08) 8291 2000 or email wr@mtasant.com.au.