In MicrOpay to pay an employee leave at half pay, you enter half the number of hours of leave for the date range. For example, you would enter 1 week of hours, but the start and end dates would span 2 weeks. This means that the employee will be paid half the value of 2 weeks' leave and have 1 week deducted from their balance.
Before you process Half Pay, you should review the relevant award or EBA that your Employee works under and keep a record that the Employee has agreed to this.
Scenario: Instead of an employee taking one week’s leave on full pay, the employee and their employer may agree to the employee taking 2 weeks’ leave at half pay. If agreed, the employee’s pay for the 2 weeks’ leave is the same as the pay the employee would have been entitled to for 1 week’s leave on full pay, and one week of leave will be deducted from the employee’s leave balance.
Before setting up the below, you also need to consider how much leave the employee should accrue whilst on half pay leave.
If the employee is to accrue 1 week of leave (annual, sick, long service, or any user defined leave) and accrue based on contract hours, then you will need to suspend their leave for half of the leave period
If the employee is to accrue 2 weeks of leave (annual, sick, long service, and any user defined leave) and accrue based on hours worked, then you will need to include an unpaid leave reason in the transaction for the balance of hours and attach this to the leave class.
Create a Leave Reason for Leave at Half Pay
You will need to create separate Leave Reasons for each Leave Type that employees can take at Half Pay.
Go to Payroll, Maintenance, Leave, Leave Reasons.
Click Add.
Enter a Code and Description.
Select the Leave Type, e.g., Annual Leave or Long Service Leave.
Click STP Reporting.
Select the relevant Reporting Group and Reporting Subgroup.
Tick Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) if applicable.
OK to save.
Create a Leave Reason for Unpaid Leave (optional)
If you want to include the balance of the hours, you would enter this as other leave with an unpaid leave reason.
Go to Payroll, Maintenance, Leave, Leave Reasons.
Click Add.
Enter a Code and Description.
Select Other Leave as the Leave Type.
Tick Unpaid Leave.
Click STP Reporting.
Select the relevant Reporting Group and Reporting Subgroup.
Tick Ordinary Time Earnings (OTE) if applicable.
OK to save.
Add the Unpaid Leave Reason to Hours Worked Leave
If your Employee is attached to an Hours Worked Leave Code and they need to accrue leave on the unpaid leave reason:
Go to Payroll, Maintenance, Leave, and select the Leave Type you need to update.
Edit the Hours Worked Leave Class.
From the dropdown next to Other Leave Reason, select the unpaid leave reason created above.
OK to save.
Repeat these steps for all Leave classes you need to update.
To suspend leave accruals
If you need to suspend the leave accruals for leave that is based on contract hours:
Go to Payroll, Maintenance, Employees, Employees.
Edit the employee you need to suspend leave for.
Select Leave.
Highlight the leave type you want to suspend.
Tick Suspend Leave Entitlements.
Enter the From and To dates. For employees taking leave at half pay, this should be half the leave period.
Repeat steps 4 to 6 for all leave types required.
Click OK to save.
Enter the Transaction
Go to Payroll, Transactions, Processing, and select the transaction you wish to enter.
Select Leave under Pay Summary, e.g., Annual Leave or Long Service Leave.
Select the Leave Reason created above for leave at half pay.
Enter half the number of hours for the period of leave. This will reduce the Employee’s Leave balance by half the hours.
Leave Rate is the Employee's normal rate.
Enter the Start Date and End Date that covers the full period of leave.
If you need to enter unpaid hours, select Other Leave. Select the Unpaid Other Leave Reason created above, enter the balance of hours, and Start and End dates. The rate will change to zero.
Click Process.