MA000012Fully builtEffective 1 July 2025
Pharmacy Industry Award
Covers community pharmacy businesses across Australia. Fourteen classifications spanning four pharmacy assistant levels, four pharmacy student stages (1st through 4th year of course), two pharmacy intern halves, and four pharmacist tiers (Pharmacist → Experienced → In Charge → Manager). Built around a two-column penalty model (separate FT/PT and casual rates per cl. 22.3 Table 6, with casual rates inclusive of loading), an annualised wage option for pharmacists and PA Level 4, the on-premise meal allowance unique to pharmacist break coverage, and Pharmacy Guild's Retirement Fund as a default super fund.
Fully built. Rates, allowances, penalties and any required apprentice / junior rates are all wired to the rate resolver and have been verified against the consolidated award text and the latest pay guide.
What's built
- All 14 cl. 16.1 classifications — Pharmacy Assistant L1-L4, Pharmacy Student 1st-4th year of course, Pharmacy Intern 1st/2nd half, Pharmacist, Experienced Pharmacist, Pharmacist in Charge and Pharmacist Manager — at the 1 July 2025 rates including the FWC PR786095 work value uplift for pharmacists.
- Junior rates restricted to PA L1 and L2 only (cl. 16.2) — under-16 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 at 45 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 90% of the relevant adult minimum.
- Eleven cl. 19 allowances — home medicine reviews ($106.40 / wk for pharmacist-grade), meal-OT ($23.74 + $21.28 further), full-time and part-time laundry ($6.25 / wk and $1.25 / shift), motor vehicle ($0.99 / km), Broken Hill ($45.73 / wk for County of Yancowinna NSW), plus on-premise meal (150% of min rate for the break period — pharmacist only) and reimbursement-only allowances for clothing, township-transfer moving expenses, and early/late-shift transport.
- Two-column penalty rate model — Mon-Fri 7am-8am at 150 / 175%, 7pm-9pm at 125 / 150%, 9pm-midnight at 150 / 175% (FT/PT vs casual). Saturday 7am-8am at 200 / 225%, 8am-6pm at 125 / 150%, 6pm-9pm at 150 / 175%, 9pm-midnight at 175 / 200%. Sunday 7am-9pm at 150 / 175%, before 7am or after 9pm at 200 / 225%. Public holiday all day at 225 / 250%.
- Overtime — Mon-Sat first 2 hours at 150%, after 2 hours at 200%; Sunday 200%; public holiday 250%. Casual loading is NOT payable on top of overtime (cl. 21.4(c)).
- Granular OT triggers — over 38 hrs / week or 76 / fortnight, over 12 ord hrs / day, hours not continuous, hours between midnight and 7am (irrespective of total), and hours outside the cl. 14 rostering arrangements.
- Annualised wage arrangements (cl. 18) — restricted to Pharmacist (and variants) plus PA Level 4, FT only. Outer-limit hours required in writing, 12-month termination notice, 12-month reconciliation with 14-day shortfall pay, time records and employee acknowledgement each pay period.
- Default super funds — REST and Guild Retirement Fund (cl. 20.4 — Pharmacy Guild's fund — replaced predecessor entries via PR794710 from 23 January 2026).
- Personal/carer's leave with the cl. 24.2(a) one-day-per-year no-statutory-declaration rule, plus the casual 48-hour unavailable-for-care entitlement (cl. 24.3).
- Annual leave loading 17.5% with the greater-of comparison against weekend penalty rates (day work) or shift loading + weekend penalty (shiftwork) per cl. 23.3(b).
Known limitations
- Casual penalty rates are SUBSTITUTES (inclusive of casual loading) per cl. 11.3, NOT additive on top of the FT/PT base. The schema currently allows additive penalty stacking; the resolver must select the correct column based on employment type or back-calculate.
- Penalty rates are NOT cumulative on overtime (cl. 22.2) — when OT applies, penalty rates do not stack. Resolver must implement substitution.
- Casual loading is NOT payable on overtime (cl. 21.4(c)) — casual employees working OT receive the OT rate only, no 25% on top. Resolver must exclude the loading from the OT calculation.
- The on-premise meal allowance (cl. 19.4) is a 150% of min hourly rate calculation FOR THE BREAK PERIOD, not a flat dollar amount. The placeholder allowance row carries amount = 0 and the resolver must compute it per-classification at runtime.
- OT triggers based on shift continuity (cl. 21.2(c)), midnight-to-7am window (cl. 21.2(d)) and out-of-roster hours (cl. 21.2(e)) require the resolver to evaluate non-hours-based predicates against the actual shift and roster.
- Pharmacy student progression by completion+passing of subjects rather than time (cl. 16.3) needs UI capture of course-year status — students may progress in less than 12 months or remain at a year's rate longer.
- Master of Pharmacy 1st year is treated as 3rd year of course for pay purposes (cl. 16.3(b)) — UI must capture course type when assigning pharmacy student classification.
Setup & special instructions
- Standard rate for the award is Pharmacy Assistant Level 3 ($1,068.40 / week) per cl. 2.
- Casual penalty rates are inclusive of the 25% loading and substitute for the FT/PT base on those hours — do NOT add 25% on top.
- Junior rates apply ONLY to Pharmacy Assistant Levels 1 and 2 (cl. 16.2) — pharmacy students, interns and pharmacists do not have junior rate variants.
- Annualised wage arrangements are eligible only for Pharmacist (any tier) and Pharmacy Assistant Level 4, full-time only (cl. 18.1, 18.2(a)). UI must enforce eligibility.
- The default super funds are REST and Guild Retirement Fund (cl. 20.4) — different from the typical AustralianSuper / Australian Retirement Trust default used in many other awards.
- Personal/carer's leave: 1 day per year may be taken without a statutory declaration. Medical certificate may be required if the absence exceeds 3 consecutive days (cl. 24.2(b)).
- Pay day must be no later than 4 days after the end of the pay period (cl. 17.2(a)). Changing the pay day requires 4 weeks written notice (cl. 17.2(c)).
- Saturday 7am-8am attracts the highest morning premium across the entire award (200% FT/PT, 225% casual) — confirm this is captured in any roster planning.
- Part-time pharmacy school students may work a maximum of 3 consecutive hours per shift on a school day (cl. 10.14).
Industries
- • Community pharmacy
- • Retail pharmacy
- • Compounding pharmacy
- • Pharmacy assistants
- • Pharmacy interns
- • Pharmacists
Read the consolidated award
MA000012 on Fair Work Library
The consolidated award text is the authoritative source. Always confirm specific obligations against the award itself — Mployr's implementation status reflects what we've seeded; it does not replace legal advice.
Want to see this award running on your data?
We can demo a pay run on the pharmacy award using sample employees in a sandbox tenant — including any of the special-instruction steps above so you can see exactly what your team's day-to-day looks like.
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