Restaurant Award Flexibility Provisions

Recently the Fair Work Commission issued a decision introducing some flexibility provisions in the Restaurant Industry Award 2020, to assist businesses in recovering from the COVID-19 Pandemic. These changes are a result of the award flexibility process which commenced late last year by the Fair Work Commission to assist industries most impacted by the pandemic.

The Fair Work Commission have introduced the following changes:

• A simplified classification structure for food and beverage and kitchen stream employees, condensing the 13 award classifications to 6.
• A Substitute Allowance in substitution for certain work and expense related allowances (By agreement with an individual employee or 75% of the employees in a workplace)
• An Exemption Rate in place of certain allowances, overtime and penalty rates for senior full time employees (By agreement with an individual employee)

It is important to note that these changes are voluntary so employers do not have to implement any of these changes but may implement one or more depending on the needs or the business. These changes aim to reduce Award complexity and regulatory burden for employers and will be reviewed after 9 months.

These variations will take effect on 11 August 2021.

Give us a call on our Business Advice Hotline on (08) 8300 0000 – select option 1 if you are a the South Australian Business Chamber Member and select option 2 if you are not a member of the South Australian Business Chamber.

For the South Australian Business Chamber PAYpack Award Service subscribers your PAYpack will be updated shortly and you will receive your PAYpack Alert advising of the change.