SCHADS annual leave:
4 weeks or 5?

Not on its own. Under clause 31.2 of the SCHADS Award, the extra week depends on weekend work and 24-hour care shifts, not on whether someone works shifts. An employee who works afternoon shifts Monday to Friday and is paid afternoon shift penalties, but doesn't work weekends, stays on 4 weeks.

No. Being paid weekend penalties doesn't decide it. What counts is the number of weekends the employee worked more than 4 ordinary hours during their leave year. They need 10 or more.

A weekend counts when the employee works more than 4 ordinary hours on it. Overtime doesn't count, so a 5-hour Saturday with 3 hours paid as overtime is only 2 ordinary hours and doesn't count. An employee who works more than 4 ordinary hours on 12 weekends in their leave year is over the threshold of 10, so they get 5 weeks.

Home care employees. 24-hour care shifts are set out in clause 25.8 of the SCHADS Award, which only applies to home care employees. An employee who works at least eight 24-hour care shifts in their leave year qualifies for 5 weeks, so nine shifts is enough and seven isn't.

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No. The award applies the test to the yearly period in which the employee's annual leave accrues, which is their own leave year. For most employees, that runs from their start date each year, not from 1 July.

No. Casual employees don't get paid annual leave, so the test only matters for full-time and part-time employees. Nursing assistants who moved to the SCHADS Award from the Nurses Award 2020 on 1 January 2025 follow clause 31.3 instead: they keep the annual leave they had under the Nurses Award, which is 5 weeks.

Yes. The SCHADS Award and the National Employment Standards set the minimum, so you can choose to give more, usually through the employment contract or an enterprise agreement. Make it a deliberate decision, because every extra week adds to your leave liability.

Yes, for a later leave year, as long as their contract or agreement doesn't promise 5 weeks. The test applies to each leave year. If they qualified in their current leave year, they're owed 5 weeks for that year. If they don't meet either test in a later leave year, the award only requires 4 weeks for that year.

It stays theirs. Under the National Employment Standards, paid annual leave accumulates from year to year, so changing someone's accrual only affects the leave they accrue from then on.

You can, because giving more than the minimum is allowed, but it's a cost rather than a safe default. Each full-time employee on 5 weeks who doesn't qualify accrues an extra 38 hours of leave a year. And because leave is usually set once, when someone is first set up in payroll, an employee who started on 4 weeks and now works weekends can still be missed, which is an underpayment.

Run the quantum of leave report in Pay Cat Toolbox. It checks every permanent employee against both clause 31.2 tests for their current leave year, then shows their current leave, whether they qualify, the reason and the change to make. You then update the employee's leave in Pay Cat Payroll.

Not at the moment. There's no automatic alert, so build a regular check into your payroll routine. Once a month suits most providers. The Pay Cat Toolbox quantum of leave report does the check for every permanent employee in one run.

Check the leave has been applied to the timesheet. Pay Cat only compares the 17.5% loading with the weekend and shift penalties when the leave is on the employee's timesheet. After approving the leave request, open Create timesheet for that date, click the leave request in the purple banner to add it, then save and approve. If you skip this step, the employee is still paid for the leave, but always at the 17.5% loading.

On top of their ordinary pay, a shiftworker gets the higher of two amounts: a 17.5% annual leave loading, or the weekend and shift penalties they would have received if they had worked instead of taking leave. This is clause 31.4 of the SCHADS Award. Employees who aren't shiftworkers get the 17.5% loading.

No, they're separate questions. Clause 31.2 of the SCHADS Award decides how much annual leave an employee accrues each year: 4 weeks or 5. Clause 31.4 decides what they're paid while they're on leave. Check both, because getting the number of weeks right doesn't mean the leave is being paid correctly.