Legal Services Award coverage: comprehensive guide
The Legal Services Award 2020 is designed to cover employees involved in various roles within the legal services sector. This award ensures that both legal professionals and support staff are granted fair wages and working conditions, tailored to the unique demands and challenges of legal practice. However, it includes specific provisions and exclusions that employers must comprehend to ensure proper compliance.
Understanding the complexities of the Legal Services Award is essential for employers and employees to guarantee fair treatment and adherence to industry standards within the legal sector.
Who’s covered under the Legal Services Award?
The Legal Services Award 2020 covers a wide range of roles within the legal sector. Here’s a quick overview:
Legal service employees
These individuals are at the core of the legal industry, managing various tasks essential to legal operations.
- Legal secretaries: Manage administrative tasks and ensure case proceedings are organised.
- Paralegals: Support legal processes through research and document preparation.
- Law clerks: Handle clerical tasks specific to legal practices, including filing and basic legal research.
- Solicitors and barristers (where applicable): While often covered by other arrangements, some may fall under this award based on employment status and tasks.
On-hire employees in the legal sector
These workers are provided by an agency to perform legal or legal support services temporarily for another business.
- Contract paralegals: Temporarily work across various firms to support legal cases.
- Temporary legal secretaries: Move between firms as needed, adapting to different legal environments.
Trainees in legal service
Individuals gain practical experience in the legal field under the guidance of a recognised training organisation or within a legal practice.
- Legal administrative trainees: Gain hands-on experience while completing formal qualifications in legal administration.
- Law graduate trainees: Gain practical experience, often as part of their path to becoming legal practitioners.
Who isn’t covered under the Fast Food Award?
While the Legal Services Award sets employment standards for the legal sector, not everyone falls under its coverage. Here are the exclusions:
Excluded groups
- Community legal centres: Non-profit organisations providing legal advice to disadvantaged communities, not covered because of unique funding and operations. This may include, for example, a community legal centre funded by government grants and donations.
- Aboriginal legal services: Services offering legal help to indigenous communities, excluded due to specific funding and operational models, for example, an Aboriginal legal service funded by government allocations and charitable contributions.
- Employers outside the legal sector: Businesses whose primary operation isn't legal services, even if they employ legally knowledgeable staff. Consider LegalTech, a company creating software for law firms but primarily engaged in the tech industry.
- Senior management and professionals: Individuals with roles and qualifications placing them outside the award’s scope, often due to different responsibilities and compensation. This may include, for instance, a law firm partner or a solicitor in private practice with distinct qualifications and roles.
Excluded employees covered by other agreements or awards
- Modern enterprise awards: The Legal Services Award doesn’t cover employees working under enterprise agreements that offer specific conditions. This may include employees at ‘National Legal Partners’, for example, who benefit from an enterprise agreement offering salaries and benefits above the standard Legal Services Award levels.
- Public sector awards: Public sector employees covered by awards tailored to government employment don’t fall under the Legal Services Award. An example of this is a lawyer working within a state government's legal department who may be governed by a public sector award specific to their state.
- Multiple award coverage: When employers are subject to more than one award, it’s crucial to determine which award most accurately reflects an employee's role and working conditions. Consider, for example, a legal administrative assistant at a firm offering legal services and financial advice who might be eligible for coverage under both the Legal Services Award and the Banking, Finance, and Insurance Award.
Legal Services Award coverage: Practical example
Shaun works as a legal administrative assistant at a law firm. His job includes:
- Document preparation (10% general, 90% essential to legal services): Drafting and formatting legal documents and correspondence.
- Client liaison (20% general, 80% essential to legal services): Communicating with clients to schedule meetings and gather information.
- File management (30% general, 70% essential to legal services): Organising and maintaining legal files and records.
Analysis
Shaun’s role is predominantly essential to legal services (80%), with a smaller portion of general tasks (20%), making him eligible for coverage under the Legal Services Award.
Steps to determine coverage
The steps below can help you determine if the Legal Services Award is the appropriate coverage for an employee:
- Identify responsibilities: List key tasks and their nature (general vs. essential to legal services).
- Compare with awards: Review definitions and classifications for the Legal Services Award and other relevant awards.
- Predominant Function Test: Consider primary tasks. If legal service tasks dominate, the Legal Services Award is likely appropriate.
- Check exclusions: Review any exclusions in the Legal Services Award and relevant industry awards.
- Review other employment agreements: Check enterprise agreements or contracts for award applicability.
- Consult experts: Consult industrial relations or legal experts if unsure about coverage.
- Maintain thorough records: Document analysis, awards considered, advice received, and the rationale behind the final decision.
Distinctions within Legal Services Award coverage
Although designed for the legal industry, the Legal Services Award contains several unexpected nuances that often surprise employers and employees. Here’s a list of nuances to watch out for:
- Exclusions for specific legal services: Community legal centres and Aboriginal legal services are excluded because of their distinct funding models.
Impact: Employers might overlook these exclusions, risking compliance issues. - Coverage of on-hire employees and trainees: The award covers temporary legal professionals and those in legal training programs, which is not widely known.
Impact: Overlooking this can lead to unequal treatment and legal non-compliance. - Broad industry application: The award covers a wide range of roles, including those indirectly supporting legal operations. For example, a Law Firm Compliance Officer, whose duties mix legal understanding with administrative tasks, may be covered because of their significant impact on the firm's operations.
Impact: Failing to recognise these roles can result in incorrect provisions being applied, leading to legal repercussions. - Primary activity determines exclusion: Businesses offering mixed services, such as legal advice and business coaching, may be excluded if legal services aren’t the primary activity.
Impact: Misclassifying employees based on primary activities could result in applying the wrong award, leading to compliance issues.
Simplifying Legal Services Award coverage compliance with Rippling
Navigating the intricacies of award coverage requires careful management to ensure compliance and fair treatment of employees. Rippling’s unified platform provides comprehensive tools to help your business easily stay on top of award coverage requirements. Key features include:
- Automated employee classification: Automatically classify employees according to the appropriate awards.
- Real-time compliance alerts: Stay updated with any changes in award coverage.
- Detailed reporting: Generate reports to ensure compliance and maintain accurate records.
- Custom templates: Use pre-built and customisable templates for various awards.
- Audit support: Access historical data and audit trails to support compliance audits.
Disclaimer: Rippling and its affiliates do not provide tax, accounting, or legal advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide or be relied on for tax, accounting, or legal advice. You should consult your own tax, accounting, and legal advisors before engaging in any related activities or transactions.
