A Jargon-Free Summary of The SCHADS Award (2024)

Everything you need to know about the SCHADS Award (2024) – without the jargon.

THE FREE SCHADS AWARD EBOOK

Everything you need to know about the Social, Community, Home Care & Disability Services Industry Award (without the jargon) + free payroll processing checklist

The Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award (SCHADS) is a complex and highly specific Modern Award covering key areas such as rest between breaks and work hours due to the industry's nature.

Unfortunately, the proverbial noose is around the neck of SCHADS businesses, as the Fair Work Commission remains limited in its support of how best to stay compliant.

This isn’t limited to small and medium companies; major SCHADS organisations such as Kreating Real Change Disability Services, Aruma Services Limited and Australian Unity have found themselves in hot water in recent years.

This summary will give you a comprehensive understanding of everything you need about the SCHADS Award.

In addition, you can download a FREE copy of our SCHADS Award eBook that covers everything you need to know about the award PLUS a BONUS payroll processing checklist to help you stay compliant.

Disclaimer:
Please note that every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided in this guide is accurate. You should note, however, that the information is intended as a guide only, providing an overview of general information available. This guide is not intended to be an exhaustive source of information and should not be seen to constitute legal or tax advice. You should, where necessary, seek a second professional opinion for any legal or tax issues raised in your business affairs.

• Crisis assistance and supported housing sector
• Social and community services sector, including community development work
• Home care sector
• Family day care scheme sector
  
  

However, the SCHADS Award doesn’t cover employers and employees who are covered by the following award:

• Aged Care Award
• Amusement, Events and Recreation Award
• Fitness Industry Award
• Health Professionals and Support Services Award
• Nurses Award

There are three types of employment categories under the SCHADS Award:

1. Full-time employment
2. Part-time employment
3. Casual employment

Full-Time Employees

To be classified as a full-time employee under the SCHADS Award, you are either:

• An employee who is engaged to work 38 ordinary hours per week; or
• Averages 38 hours per week over four weeks; or
• An employee who is considered full-time at the workplace by the employers despite working less than 38 hours per week

Part-Time Employees

To be classified as a part-time employee under the SCHADS Award, you must:

• Be working fewer than 38 ordinary hours on a reasonably predictable basis; or
• Have a written agreement that indicates a regular pattern of work but doesn’t necessarily need to provide the same guaranteed number of hours each week

As part of the SCHADS Award 2022 review, the minimum engagement period now applies to part-time employees.

The minimum number of hours applicable are:  

• Social and community services employees (except when working as a SCHADS Award disability support worker): 3 hours
• Home care employees: 2 hours
• All other employees: 2 hours

The amendment also applies to periods of work that form part of broken shifts. 

Part-time employees who have worked beyond their guaranteed minimum hours for at least 12 months will, following the SCHADS Award 2022 review, be able to request an amendment to their employment agreement to increase their minimum contracted hours.

Casual Employees

Under the SCHADS Award, a casual employee is classified as one who has no guaranteed hours of work or works with irregular patterns. This category includes roles such as personal care workers, support workers, and case managers.

The casual hourly rate is the same as full-time, and part-time employees plus an additional 25% loading on top of their rate of pay as they don’t receive annual leave and personal/carer’s leave entitlements, redundancy benefits and other entitlements that part-time and full-time employees received.

The minimum number of hours applicable are:

• Social and community services employees (except when undertaking disability services work): 3 hours
• Home care employees: 1 hour
• All other employees: 2 hour

Right to Request Casual Conversion

A casual employee covered by the SCHADS Award has the right to request that they be converted to full-time or part-time employment if they are regular employees, meaning they worked a regular pattern of hours for the 12 months before the request without significant adjustments.

This request will need to be made in writing, and there should be no reasonable business grounds for refusal by the employer unless it includes:

• Significant changes to their hours of work to become engaged under the new employment type.
• The position may not exist in the next 12 months.
• The position may reduce in the number of hours within the next 12 months.
• Significant changes in working day and times within the next 12 months that don’t suit the employee’s availability

All grounds of refusal should be known or reasonably foreseeable, and the decisions must be made within 21 days of receiving the request.

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Note: You can access all previous years' minimum pay rates in the Award’s pay guide summaries, including the SCHADS Award pay rates 2023.

Accessing the SCHADS Pay Guide

You can refer to our pay rate cheat sheet for the latest pay rates in our eBook, which you can access here: CLICK

SCHADS Pay Guide and Progression

When an employee has reached 12 months’ continuous employment, they’ll be eligible for progression from one pay point/ Award level to the next if they are deemed competent and satisfactory in performance during this period or if they have new or enhanced skills. 

SCHADS Award Levels 2024 Explained 

The SCHADS Award has different classification levels and pay points that determine the minimum wage rates for employees.

The classification level determines the baseline wage rate. The pay points then allow employees to progress to higher wage rates over time within their classification level based on tenure and performance. Home Care Employees provide a range of services, including domestic and lifestyle support, to assist individuals in community and residential settings.

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Under the SCHADS Award, the ordinary hour per week should be 38 or at least an average of 38 hours per week based on the following conditions:

• Worked in a week of five days in shifts and not over 8 hours per shift
• Worked in a fortnight of 76 hours of 10 shifts and not over 8 hours per shift; or
• In a four-week period of 152 hours of 19 shifts, 8 hours per shift

The maximum number of hours per shift can be increased to 10 hours per shift if it’s agreed in writing.

Span of Hours

SCHADS Award Day Worker

Between 6am and 8pm, Monday to Saturday

SCHADS Award Shiftworker

Employees who work hours per the table below are considered shiftworkers under the Award:

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All employees except casuals should have at least two full days off per week, four full days off each fortnight, or eight full days in each four-week cycle. Where possible, these days off need to be consecutive.

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• Employees should have a rest of no less than 10 consecutive hours between shifts
• Employees should have a rest of no less than 8 consecutive hours between shifts if their following shift is a sleepover shift
• Employees should have a rest of no less than 8 consecutive hours from finishing their sleepover shift to the next shift
  
  

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Seven days’ notice needs to be given for any changes in rosters.

If a client cancels or changes home care services, notice must be given to the employee by 5 p.m. the day before if no payment is to be made. If no notice is given, the employee will be entitled to receive payment for the hours rostered on that day. 

The other alternative is for the employer to direct the employee to make up the cancelled time in other areas of the business within the next fortnight.

As part of the SCHADS Award 2022 review, roster changes can now be made if an employee proposes one to accommodate an agreed shift swap with another employee, so long as the employer agrees.

Broken Shifts

This only applies to social and community services employees working in home care and disability services. Domestic assistance, including cleaning, laundry, gardening, and basic repairs, is a key part of the services provided in the home care sector.

A broken shift occurs when an employee has one or more breaks (not including their meal break) and works a shift that is no more than 12 hours.

A minimum of 10 hours between broken shifts on consecutive days must be given. If the employee works more than 12 hours, double time will be paid.

As part of the latest SCHADS Award review, from 1 July 2022, broken shifts are now classified into two different sections. An employer and employee can agree for the employee to work three-period breaks, or otherwise, the employer can roster the employee for a two-period break.

In other words, you can still roster a SCHADS worker for a broken shift of two periods of work (with one unpaid break), but you will have to request permission to do so if you want to schedule them for three periods of work (with two unpaid breaks).

This applies only to social and community services employees for disability services work and home care.

Different allowances will now also be introduced for each of these scenarios. Employees working a two-period broken shift must be paid at 1.7% of the standard rate. And employees working a three-period broken shift must be paid at 2.25% of the standard rate.

In addition, each employee must be paid a shift allowance depending on the shift type (e.g., afternoon, night, or public holiday shift).

Sleepovers

This is when an employer requires an employee to provide home care services overnight at the client’s home but that isn’t considered a 24-hour care shift:

• The employee needs to be provided with a separate room with a bed and facilities, with the shift being 8 consecutive hours. 
• A sleepover allowance of 4.9% of their standard rate must be paid for each night.
• If they need to work during the sleepover period, they must be paid a minimum overtime rate of one hour.
• If the employer rosters the employee to work immediately before or after the sleepover period, a minimum of 4 hours’ work must be paid.

As part of the latest SCHADS Award review, from 1 July 2022, clean linen will need to be provided in addition to the separate room with a bed and facilities. 

24 Hour Care

A 24-hour care shift is when an employee must be available in a client’s home to provide prescribed home care services for a 24-hour period. This shift should last no more than 8 hours. 

The employee must be allowed to sleep during the shift and, where appropriate, be given a private room with a bed.

They will be paid at 155% of their appropriate rate for each 24-hour period. 

As part of the latest SCHADS Award review, from 1 July 2022, if the employee is required to provide more than 8 hours of care, that work will be considered overtime at a rate of 150% for the first 2 hours and 200% after that. However, the employees can refuse to work more than 8 hours during a 24-hour care shift if it's unreasonable.

Excursions

If an employee agrees to take a client on excursion activities that involve staying overnight away from home, the following provisions apply:

• Monday to Friday Excursions
  • They must be paid for the time worked between 8am to 6pm for a maximum of 10 hours per day
  • Time accrual instead of overtime may be agreed between the employer and employee for any excess hours worked
  • Sleepover allowance must be paid
• Weekend Excursions
  • If the employee needs to work on Saturday and/or Sunday, they cannot work for more than ten days within that two-week cycle.

Client Cancellations

As part of the latest SCHADS Award review, from 1 July 2022, should a client cancel (or reschedule) a home care or disability service within 7 days, the employer can either redirect the employee to perform other work during the rostered hours, cancel the shift entirely, or allocate make-up time.

Whichever option the employer chooses, the employee must be paid accordingly.

Check out our breakdown here for more information regarding client cancellations and the latest award updates.

Saturday & Sunday Work

The following penalty rates apply under the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award for weekend work:

Casual employees should be paid their casual loading in addition to the penalty rates.

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Meal Break

Employees must take an unpaid meal break of 30 to 60 minutes if they’ve worked for more than five hours.

If they work through their meal break, they will be paid overtime rates until they take their meal break.

If the employee needs to have their meal with a client, they will be paid their normal ordinary rates and counted as time worked.

Tea Breaks

A 10-minute tea break every 4 hours worked must be given to the employee and counted as time worked.

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Full-Time Employees

Part-Time & Casual Employees

As part of the latest SCHADS Award review, from 1 July 2022, all time worked outside the normal span of hours has now also been included in the overtime rates for part-time and casual employees:

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Time Off Instead of Overtime Payment

An employee and employer can agree for the employee to take time off instead of being paid for overtime worked. There are a few conditions that need to occur:

• The employee is entitled to taking off the equivalent of the overtime payment. For example, two overtime hours at a penalty rate of 150% would mean 3 hours off for the employee rather than 2 hours.
• The time taken off must occur within three months from when the overtime was worked unless agreed between the employee and employer. If there is no agreement, the employee must pay the overtime in the first pay cycle after the three months.
• The employer must pay the overtime immediately if the employee requests this.

Rest Period After Overtime

Under the SCHADS Award, all employees except casuals must take a minimum of 10 consecutive hours off between shifts without loss of pay.

Employees who work without ten consecutive hours off will be paid at 200% until they finish their shift. They will then need ten consecutive hours off duty without loss of pay.

Recall to Work Overtime

A minimum of 2 hours’ work is to be paid if an employee is recalled to work overtime after leaving the work premises.

Rest Break During Overtime

If your employee has been recalled to work overtime and works more than 4 hours, they must have a 20-minute meal break and another 20-minute break for each subsequent 5 hours’ overtime. All of these breaks must be counted as time worked, and the meals must be free of charge.

Higher Duties

For home care employees who are carrying out work with higher wage rates, they must be paid at the higher wage rate:

• If they worked two hours or less, they need to be paid for the time worked.
• They must be paid a full day or shift if they worked more than two hours.

If the employee has worked five consecutive days or more at a higher classification, they must be paid at the minimum rate based on the classification they worked.

Remote Work

As part of the latest SCHADS Award review, from 1 July 2022,a new remote work clause was introduced. According to the new determination, remote work applies when an employer directs or authorises an employee to work additional hours away from their designated workplace.

Employees performing remote work receive minimum payments and other rates depending on the time of day they work, in lieu of any other penalties and overtime.There are two primary minimum payments when it comes to remote work, depending on what period the remote work is being performed:

• 15 minutes between 6.00 am and 10.00 pm.
• 30 minutes between 10.00 pm and 6.00 am.

Any time worked continuously beyond the minimum hours paid will be rounded to the nearest 15 minutes. For example, if an employee works for 1 hour and 5 minutes, they’ll get paid for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

If an employee is not on call, the employer is required to pay them a minimum of one hour’s pay. And if the remote work involves staff meetings or training, it’s also a minimum of one hour’s pay.

You’ll need to pay at your employee’s minimum hourly rate, but there will be instances where you’ll attract additional loading, such as remote work outside of a certain span of hours, doing overtime or working on weekends or public holidays.

If your employees complete remote work, they must maintain and provide a timesheet for the work completed to their employer.

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1. Clothing & Equipment Allowance: paid to employees if uniforms are not supplied by the employer
2. Laundry Allowance: paid to employees if uniforms are not laundered by the employer free of charge
3. Meal Allowance: paid to an employee if they work at least an hour of overtime
4. First Aid Allowance: paid to an employee who’s first aid qualified and expected to perform first-aid duties on shift
   1. Full-time employees
   2. Part-time or casual employees
5. Travelling, Transport & Fares Allowance: paid to employees that need to use their own vehicles to perform their duties
6. Heat Allowance: paid to employees that need to work more than one hour in artificially raised temperatures in the below range:
   1. 40°C - 46°C
   2. Over 46°C
7. On-Call Allowance: paid to employees who are required to be on-call
8. Broken shift allowance: A broken shift is where an employee works two or more separate periods of work in one day, separated by one or more unpaid breaks. Employees working these types of shifts under the SCHADS award are entitled to a broken shift allowance, which is an extra payment on top of their normal wages.

Search our database for all relevant allowances to the various modern awards.

Specific changes have been made to the laundry and on-call allowances as part of the review in 2022. A new allowance has also been introduced: the repair allowance. 

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As of 1 July 2022, however, employers are required to pay a super guarantee on behalf of eligible employees, regardless of how much they are paid. 

Currently, a rate of 11.5% of an employee’s ordinary earnings must be contributed.

Note: The super guarantee will increase 0.5% each financial year until it reaches 12% in the 2025/26 financial year.

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Under the SCHADS Award, when an employee takes paid time off, a 17.5% leave loading on top of their annual leave is applied.

Employees must be paid the higher of:

1. An annual leave loading of 17.5% of their ordinary pay rate; or
2. The employee would have received weekend and shift penalties if they weren’t on leave during that period.

Example:

If a full-time employee applies for leave between Thursday this week and Wednesday next week, he or she would typically work 8 hours of shiftwork on a Saturday too.

The employer must calculate 38 hours, including a 17.5% leave loading, and compare it to the amount the employee would typically receive if they had been paid working across that period with the Saturday penalty rates.

Whichever of the two calculations is higher is how much the employee should be paid across that period of time, not for individual days.

The idea is so that the employee is protected from being paid less for going on paid annual leave.

Note: Shiftworkers are entitled to 5 weeks of paid annual leave if they are available seven days a week and regularly rostered to work on Sundays and public holidays. 

As part of the 2022 review, employees who perform at least eight 24-hour care shifts during the year will now be considered shift workers for the NES and are entitled to one additional week of annual leave.

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All public holiday entitlements are per the National Employment Standards (NES) and the penalty rates outlined in the table above.

All public holidays are to be paid 250% of their ordinary pay rate except for casual employees who are paid 275% of their ordinary pay rate (inclusive of casual loading).

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When it comes to ending employment, both parties must provide notice, with the required notice period varying based on the employee’s length of continuous service. For instance, employees with less than one year of service need to give one week’s notice, while those with 25 years or more must provide eight weeks’ notice.

Employers must also consider several factors when terminating employment:

• The employee’s continuous service includes authorised unpaid leave but excludes unauthorised absences.
• The employee’s classification level and pay point.
• Any outstanding entitlements, such as annual leave or long service leave.

Employees who are terminated may be eligible for redundancy pay, calculated based on their continuous service. 

Additionally, employers must provide a termination letter detailing the termination date, reason for termination, and any outstanding entitlements. This ensures transparency and helps both parties understand their rights and obligations under the SCHADS Award.

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Historically, roles in these female-dominated sectors have been undervalued compared to those in male-dominated industries. The ERO seeks to correct this by ensuring fair pay.

The ERO applies to social and community service employees, including those working in crisis assistance, supported housing, and home care. Effective 30 June 2023, the ERO mandates a 15% minimum wage increase for eligible employees.

Employers must ensure compliance with the ERO by:

• Reviewing payroll systems to confirm that eligible employees receive the mandated wage increase.
• Providing written notice to employees about the ERO and its impact on their pay.
• Ensuring employees are paid the correct rate, including applicable allowances and penalties.

By adhering to the ERO, employers contribute to a fairer and more equitable workplace, aligning with the broader goals of the SCHADS Award.

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This includes direct care workers, support staff, and management roles, each with specific classifications and pay points.

Employers in the disability services sector must ensure compliance with the SCHADS Award by:

• Providing a safe and healthy work environment for all employees.
• Ensuring that employees receive the correct pay rate, including any applicable allowances and penalties.
• Offering opportunities for training and professional development to enhance skills and career growth.
• Treating employees with dignity and respect, safeguarding their rights.

The SCHADS Award also outlines various entitlements for disability services employees, such as:

• Annual leave and long service leave.
• Sick leave and carer’s leave.
• Parental leave and family leave.
• Public holidays and rostered days off.

Employers must ensure these entitlements are met and provide employees with written notice of their rights and obligations under the SCHADS Award. This ensures compliance and fosters a supportive and fair working environment in the disability services sector.

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Our cloud-based payroll solution automates compliance checks and data syncing so you can process payroll accurately and efficiently.

Key benefits include:

• Automated modern awards compliance to prevent costly wage theft issues
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• Manager approval of timesheets on the go
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Ready to see the industry's first and only SCHADS compliant payroll system in action?

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