+Industrial Awards

Industrial awards are a common feature of the employment landscape in Australia. These awards have previously been handed down through Industrial Relations Commissions for either the whole of Australia by the Federal Industrial Relations Commission or for each state by the various State IR Commissions. There are a number of awards which apply to employees in architectural practices.  Although complex, the system and the interaction of different jurisdictions was well understood.

On this date all existing Federal Awards were duplicated as well as State Awards being duplicated into the Federal system.  The reason for this duplication was that the application of a particular award is now dependent on the business being subject to the Trade Practices Act or not.

Federal Awards now have 2 versions which are referred to as either a Preserved Award or a Transitional Award.  The Transitional Award is applicable to those businesses that have chosen not to become incorporated.  The preserved Award applies to incorporated businesses.  In addition, each award has some statement regarding the applicability of that particular award.  For instance, the Federal Architects Award applies to employees who are either registered architects or studying to be or working towards being so registered with the over-riding caveat that it only binds those practices who are listed in the appendices of the award.

Duplicated State Awards were drawn into Federal relevance by the application of a process referred to as the Notional Agreement Preserving State Awards, NAPSA for short.

Incorporated Companies now need to refer to awards prefixed as AP for a Preserved Award and AN for a NAPSA Award.  Each prefix is followed by a unique 6 digit number for each award.  In this time of transition, care needs to be taken to ensure the document that is being used contains the most recent changes.  Currently there are Preserved Awards for Architects and Graphic Arts for graphic designers employed in architectural practices.  The current NAPSA awards apply to clerks and draftspersons differently in each state.

Sole traders, partnerships and other un-incorporated commercial structures would refer to the Federal Transitional Awards, prefixed as AT and the relevant State Awards still being administered by the independent State Industrial Relations Commissions.  Transitional awards are being maintained by the Federal AIRC.

Some of these awards are not easily interpreted to understand their application to architectural practices as the awards tend to focus on, say, engineering production for draughting awards. The ACA provides information on how to interpret the award particularly in relation to the other categories of employee.

Those that don't come under an award, their basic conditions of employment and termination are covered by various acts such as Long Service Leave Act and the like. 


^top

+Employment Documents

Clarity and transparency are the key words that should be applied to the employment conditions of staff. Difficulties can occur if the conditions of employment are not well understood by either or both parties. Employment agreements should make it obvious as to how the award conditions are applied, how wages are calculated and paid and anything unique to the office concerned.

Federal Government policy directs suppliers of goods and services to Federal Departments and Authorities to offer AWAs to their employees and practices wishing to do business with the Federal Government will need to create and offer an AWA to their staff.  Transitional and NAPSA awards still contain some instances of “prohibited content” as defined by the WorkChoices legislation.  Your AWA will be examined to ensure that this is resolved.  The draft Employment Agreement we offer should help in formatting your particular AWA.

The expectation of the application of office procedures and methods outlined in an office manual or QA system should be made clear. The ACA recommends adoption of practices which make the progress of an employment relationship non-distracting to the principals of a practice so they can concentrate on the primary function of the office, the provision of design and documentation services to clients. To that end, we have a draft employment agreement and a suggested contents for an office manual. These two documents along with the appropriate award should make it clear as to the process to be adopted in most employment interactions.

^top

 

+Salary Rates

Salaries are the largest cost to any architectural practice. They have a significant affect on the profitability of the business. The people who benefit from those salaries, the staff, are also a significant asset of the business and most office principals will give deep consideration to ways to maintaining and retaining critical skill levels during the the troughs and peaks in workload which typify architectural practice in Australia.

The ACA conducts salary surveys across Australia to be able to provide a current snapshot of the current levels of salaries. In the members area there are pro-forma documents which assist principals in ensuring that they fulfil their obligations under awards but do not, through misunderstandings of the requirements, cause the business to outlay unwarranted amounts or make unintentional overpayments.

The wage calculator is designed to clearly show how a particular salary package is calculated and how the conditions of the award are honoured. It can be used in conjunction with the employment agreement to fully and simply explain to staff the make-up of their salary package and any built-in variables such as over-time payments.

Also in the Practice Proforma sections are tables which provide comparisons of basic award conditions in the different awards, levels of skill across disparate awards and pro-formas for the assessment of incremental skill level improvements.

^top

+Resource Sharing

Members of the ACA have access to a bulletin board service for the posting of information about your need for resources. Practices have a large investment in staff and in times of low work, the ability to access overflow from other practices may assist in keeping a valued team together and provide the rewards to staff that they deserve. Conversely, a lot of time and effort is invested in developing a relationship with clients and to have the hard work threatened by a temporary lack of capacity is disheatening. A search of the bulletin board or a notice placed may bring just the additional capacity for the practice to be able to sensibly service the clients needs and the project demands.

The members only area contains, in addition to the information outlined above, newsletters and other communications from the ACA to members which are being constantly updated.

^top