Major SCHADS Award Changes 2022 (Updated: 2024)

Modern awards are subject to regular reviews to remain relevant and up-to-date. Every four years, experts and other stakeholders are convened to consider any suggested improvements or changes. 

In 2022,  the Social, Community, Home Care, and Disability Services (SCHADS) Award underwent a major review. The process allowed those directly affected by the award to have their say on improving it. 

It was also a chance for the award to keep pace with changing circumstances and ensure that it continues to meet the needs of those it covers.

Here’s what you need to know.

These changes have affected the following clauses: 

• Clause 10: Types of employment
• Clause 20: Allowances
• Clause 25: Ordinary hours of work and rostering
• Clause 31: Annual leave

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Previously, a minimum engagement period (i.e., the minimum number of hours per shift) only applied to casual employees under the SCHADS Award. However, a minimum engagement period now applies to part-time employees. The minimum engagement is now:

• 3 hours for social and community services employees (except when undertaking disability services work)
• 2 hours for all other employees

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

Lastly, part-time employees who have worked beyond their guaranteed minimum hours for at least 12 months can request an amendment to their employment agreement to increase their minimum contracted hours.

What Do You Do Now?

If you haven’t already, you need to consult your part-time employees to agree to vary existing hours to account for the new minimum engagement period. 

And if a part-time employee requests to increase their guaranteed work hours, ensure that you respond within 21 days.

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Example

Susan, a support worker in the social and community services sector, is rostered to work a shift on Wednesday, but the shift is broken up as follows: 

• Her first shift is between 12:30 pm and 4:30 pm.

• Her second shift starts at 7:00 pm and 11:00 pm. 

According to the new determinations, broken shifts are now classified into two sections. An employer and employee can agree for the employee to work broken shifts of three periods, or otherwise, the employer can roster the employee for a broken shift of two periods, similar to the above example. 

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

Different allowances have also been introduced for each of these scenarios.

Currently, the broken shift allowance is set at: 

• One unpaid break: $19.39 per broken shift
• Two unpaid breaks: $25.67 per broken shift 

Note: These allowance amounts apply to the 2023-24 financial year. They are generally updated to align with the annual changes to the minimum wage amount under the Award. You can access the wage summaries on the Fair Work website to ensure you apply the correct allowance. 

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

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Laundering Allowance

If an employee’s clothing (other than a uniform) is soiled during duty, they’ll be entitled to this allowance. 

There are, however, certain conditions, including that the employee: 

• M​​ust advise the employer of the soiling as soon as practical and, if required, provide evidence; and 
• Must have also complied with relevant PPE requirements at the time of soiling to receive the allowance.

The allowance is currently set at $0.32 cents per shift.

Repair Allowance

Suppose an employee’s clothing (other than a provided uniform) is damaged (excluding normal wear and tear) to the extent of requiring repair or full replacement while performing duties. In that case, the employer must reimburse the employee for the reasonable cost incurred in repairing or replacing the clothing.

However, the same conditions that apply to the laundering allowance apply here: 

• The employee must advise the employer of the damage or soiling as soon as possible and, if required, provide evidence of the damage; 
• They must have complied with relevant PPE requirements at the time of the damage, and 
• To be eligible for the allowance, the damage or soiling must not have been caused by the employee's negligence.

On-Call Allowance

An on-call allowance now applies to employees who are available for recall to duty at the employer’s or client’s premises and/or for remote work.

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Remote Work

Remote work applies when an employer directs or authorises an employee to work additional hours away from their designated workplace. In other words, it’s basically work performed outside the workplace, like at home. 

Employees performing remote work receive minimum payments and other rates depending on the day they work, instead 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 must pay them at least one hour’s pay. And if the remote work involves staff meetings or training, it’s at least one hour’s pay.

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

You’ll need to consult the SCHADS Award summary for these penalty rates or automate them on cloud payroll software, which we can help you configure and set up.

If your employees complete remote work, they must maintain and provide a timesheet of the remote work completed to their employer. You might want to consider implementing a mobile time-clocking system to produce accurate time records. 

Recalled to Work

A minimum of 2 hours’ work is to be paid if an employee is recalled to work overtime after leaving the premises. If the work is completed in less than two hours, they should be released from duty but still paid for two hours. 

Overtime Rate Changes 

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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Client Cancellation

Should a client cancel (or reschedule) a home care or disability service within 7 days, the employer can do one of two things. 

Firstly, the employer can redirect the employee to perform other work during the rostered hours. In this case, the employee must still be paid what they would have been paid if they performed the cancelled service or the actual redirected work-whichever is greater.

Alternatively, the employer can cancel the affected part of the shift or the shift entirely. In this scenario, you must pay the employee what they would have received had it not been cancelled. If an employer would prefer to allocate “make-up time” instead, they are allowed to do so. 

There are, however, certain conditions: 

• The employee must be consulted first
• The employee must be provided with 7 days' notice of the make-up time (this can be less if agreed by the employee)
• The new shift must be rostered within 6 weeks of the cancelled service
• You don’t have to place them in the exact shift or client, but you do need to put them in an area where they can competently perform the duty
• You’ll need to ensure that they’re paid the same or more compared to if they were to perform the cancelled service.

Roster Changes

Roster changes can now be made if an employee proposes to accommodate an agreed shift swap with another employee, so long as the employer agrees. 

24-Hour Care and Sleepover Shifts for Home Care Employees 

An employer can only require an employee to work a 24-hour care shift by agreement. During these 24 hours, the employee must provide care for a maximum of 8 hours and is paid 155% of their appropriate rate for each 24 hours. 

If the employee is required to provide more than 8 hours of care, that work will be considered overtime at 150% for the first 2 hours and 200% after that. However, the employees can only work up to 8 hours during a 24-hour care shift if it is reasonable. 

The employee must be allowed to sleep for 8 hours during the shift with a separate bed, the necessary facilities and free board/lodging for each night they sleep over.

As part of the 2022 review changes, clean linen will now need to be provided in addition to the separate room with a bed and facilities. 

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Employees who perform at least eight 24-hour care shifts during the year will now be considered shift workers for the National Employment Standards (NES) and are entitled to one additional week of annual leave.

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• Automated syncing of time and attendance data
• Real-time timesheet approvals from any device
• Modern awards rules are pre-configured for accurate pay calculations
• Customisable, Fair Work complaint payslips

With an automated system, you can process payroll accurately in under an hour. 

Key features include:

• Automatic employee record updates
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This eliminates manual errors, back pay calculations, and repetitive data entry. Instead, you can have confidence that employees are paid properly and obligations are met.

If you want to transition from manual payroll to an automated system, contact us for a free demonstration of our cloud-based payroll and see the benefits firsthand.