By Australasian Convenience and Petroleum Marketers Association Executive Manager Employment and Training Elisha Radwanowski.
As part of the ‘2021-2022 Employment Guides Pack,’ ACAPMA has released the ‘Individual Flexibility Guide for Bulk Fuel Tanker Drivers.’ This detailed Guide outlines provisions that allow for making changes to the Award on an individual basis, as well as walking through the unique considerations, calculations and communications that are required in the context of the oil distribution.
Bulk fuel transport is a specialised activity, and within the broader Road Transport and Distribution Award 2020 there are multiple carve outs and special conditions that apply to oil distribution workers to reflect this, not least of which is the 35h week and specified dangerous goods allowances. With most fuel transport undertaken by small and medium specialised distributors utilisation of the flexibility provisions in the Award allows for the simplification of the payroll process including the creation of a common hourly rate, while ensuring the employee is better off overall, but there are cautions.
It is imperative that any Individual Flexibility Agreement be drawn and documented appropriately, be entered into in good faith, be able to be withdrawn or terminated with notice and clearly provide for the employee to be better off overall with the Agreement than without it. This last element necessitates regular review of the actual hours worked and the current Award conditions in a process called modelling and testing to ensure that the Agreement remains more beneficial.
The process is detailed and important, but it need not be onerous, clear understanding of the whys of the requirements, and quarterly or annual review of rates and rosters delivers the comfort of compliance review with the benefit of simplified payroll.
The ACAPMA ‘Guide 2021-2022 – Individual Flexibility Guide for Bulk Fuel Tanker Drivers’ is available to all ACAPMA Members now by request to employment@acapma.com.au and will be emailed directly to all members with the completed Guide Pack in the coming weeks.
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HR Highlights are things to consider, implement and watch out for in your business. They are provided as general advice and you should seek further advice on your situation by calling 1300 160 270 and speaking to one of ACAPMA Workplace Relations Professionals – it’s free for members.
Published with permission from ACAPMA.
