Working hours in the animal care and veterinary services industry
What governs working hours?
The Fair Work Act sets out National Employment Standards which are minimum employment standards covering employment conditions such as the full-time working week being 38 hours and provisions for working additional hours if they are reasonable.
The Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award 2020 (the Award) covers and applies to veterinarians, practice managers, veterinary nurses, receptionists, animal attendants, and assistants. We encourage you to become familiar with the contents of the Award, which can be found
here.
The Award is an industrial instrument that is enforceable in courts and sets out the minimum conditions that apply to those who work in this industry. An employer is not restricted by law to paying award rates of pay and many pay above award rates of pay. However, an award entitlement that is not paid may result in an underpayment under the Award. You are entitled to seek the payment of any underpayment and employers can face civil penalties for breaching awards by not paying what their employees are entitled to be paid.
Know your working hours conditions and entitlements under the Award
The Award also sets out the standard hours of work (referred to in the Award as “ordinary hours of work’) for a full-time employee are 38 hours. The Award states that ordinary hours of work can be averaged over 28 days, with averaged hours not exceeding 152 hours over 28 days, OR 38 hours over an agreed roster cycle.
All hours that you perform work count towards your ordinary hours of work. The Award specifically recognises that the time taken for travel by vets in the performance of your duties (outside of on-call duties) count towards your ordinary hours of work.
Under the Award, vets are entitled to a minimum of 3 full days off per fortnight, which accumulate if not taken. If these days are not used within 6 weeks, they must be paid out at the ordinary rate of pay.
An unpaid meal break of no less than 30 minutes must be allowed to each employee between the fourth and fifth hours of work. (In times of emergency, staff accident or illness, the meal break can be varied by agreement between the employer and the employee.)
Many times, employees in the veterinary industry find that they are working more than an average of 38 ordinary hours per week. Such additional hours will be classed as overtime and must be paid at the overtime rates of pay within the Award. While others on the Award receive a penalty for working unsociable hours or overtime, vets do not receive a penalty on top of their normal rate of pay for working additional hours.
Vets do, however, like other employees, receive penalty rates for Public Holidays and Christmas day. There are also additional on-call rates for all employees under the agreement.
When do additional hours become unreasonable and can you refuse to work them?
The Fair Work Act allows employees to refuse to work additional hours if they are unreasonable.
There is no legislative definition, chart, or formula, of what constitutes 'reasonable' additional hours.
Instead, the Fair Work Act lists a number of factors that must be taken into consideration when determining whether additional hours are “reasonable”. Whether an employer’s request is reasonable depends on several factors:
- Any risk to employee health and safety from working the additional hours;
- The employee’s personal circumstances, including family responsibilities;
- The usual patterns of work in the industry, or the part of an industry, in which the employee works;
- If the employee is entitled to overtime pay or penalty rates for working the overtime, and/or if they are paid at a higher rate on the understanding that they work some overtime;
- If the employee was given enough notice that they may have to work overtime;
- If the overtime falls within the average of ordinary hours;
- The needs of the business;
- Any other relevant factors.
The reasonableness of the request or the refusal to work will differ for each member and each circumstance.
If you are concerned that you are being asked to work unreasonable additional hours, or you are not being compensated for the extra hours you are working, you should raise this matter with your supervisor or manager and explain why you believe the additional hours are unreasonable or demonstrate your calculations. If this does not resolve the issue, or if you do not feel comfortable discussing this with your employer, union members can contact the Workplace Advice & Support team at Professionals Australia for assistance.
Your contract
Your contract of employment cannot override your Award. A contract may provide for allowances to be rolled into an annual salary. However, if you end up worse off under the contract than if the allowances and any overtime payable are taken into account then you may have a claim for an underpayment.
This is why it is most important to keep your own records of rostered, overtime and
on-call hours.
Your union can also assist you with calculations and requesting additional payment.