Changes to TOIL provisions

By Ashleigh McMillan
Journalist

The Fair Work Commission has announced changes to time-off-in-lieu (TOIL) provisions which affect the General Retail Industry Award 2010.

The award covers most ancillary staff working in optometric practices and optical outlets. The changes are effective immediately.

• An employee and an employer may agree that rather than being paid overtime, an employee will instead receive TOIL. An agreement between the employee and employer must be made in writing, and a new written agreement must be created for each instance of TOIL.
• Each TOIL agreement must include the number of overtime hours worked and when they were worked, and an explicit statement that both the employee and employer agree that TOIL will be given, rather than the employee receiving payment for overtime penalties.
• The agreement must also explicitly state that any remaining TOIL not taken by the employee for overtime will be paid to the employee at the applicable overtime rate.
• Time-off-in-lieu must be taken within six months of the overtime being worked and must be equivalent in hours to the overtime worked by the employee.

More information about TOIL provisions can be found on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.