This video explains the rules and compliance requirements for different types of shifts under the SCHADS Award. It covers broken shifts, sleepovers, 24-hour shifts, excursions, weekend work, public holidays, and recall shifts. Viewers will learn when agreements are required, how to calculate allowances and penalty rates, and the specific conditions for providing facilities, sleep, and overtime pay. The video uses examples for full-time and casual employees to show how rates are applied, including public holidays and recall shifts. Understanding these rules is essential for employers to ensure correct pay, avoid compliance issues, and manage the unique requirements of staff working in Home Care Services.
To the SCHADS Award from July 2022, two of which impacted broken shifts. The first requires employee agreements where there are more than two periods of work in the broken shift. In other words, two or more unpaid gaps, an agreement must be attained before the shift or as part of the employee's regular pattern of work. The second introduced a new broken shift allowance, which we discussed in the previous module.
Next, we have sleepovers. A sleepover is when your employee has to provide Home Care Services overnight at the client's home. It's not necessarily considered to be a 24-hour care shift, so the compliance rules are a little bit different. You'll need to give your employee a separate room with a bed and the necessary facilities, like a bathroom and a kitchen or kitchenette. If the shift ends up being eight consecutive hours, they also must get paid a sleepover allowance, which you can refer back to in our previous module. If they are required to perform any specific duties while staying the night, they must be paid a minimum overtime rate of 1 hour. If they have to work immediately before or after the sleepover—in other words, they don't get a break—then you should pay them for a minimum of 4 hours of work, even if they don't work the entire 4 hours. Calculating pay with sleepover shifts can be complex, so you may want to consider implementing automated payroll software for that.
Moving on to 24-hour shifts. Given the nature of the services that Home Care businesses provide, it's likely that you'll have staff who will need to work 24-hour shifts. Now, if that's the case, there are certain rules you have to follow. Basically, you can only require an employee to work a 24-hour care shift if both parties agree. If an employee is rostered to work the shift, you must give the employee an opportunity to sleep for a continuous 8 hours during the shift in their own separate bed. They must also have access to facilities such as a kitchen and bathroom, along with free board or lodging for each night they sleep over. Clean linen is now also a requirement and will need to be provided in addition to the separate room with a bed and facilities. You would have learned in the previous module that there is also an allowance for this type of shift, so make sure you are paying your staff accordingly.
Next on the list of shifts is excursions. If your employee agrees to take a client on an excursion that involves staying away from home, you must stick to the next couple of rules to meet all your compliance requirements. If the excursion takes place on a weekday, Monday to Friday, they must get paid for the time they work between 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. They shouldn't work more than 10 hours per day, and they must be paid a sleepover allowance if it's an overnight excursion. The same applies to Saturday and Sunday excursions, but you'll need to make sure that your employee doesn't work for more than 10 days within the 2E cycle.
For weekend work, you need to know that you have to pay your staff penalty rates. Penalty rates are higher pay rates that employees need to be paid for working particular hours or days. On Saturdays, you'll need to pay your staff 150% of the minimum pay rate, and on Sunday, the penalty rate is 200% of the minimum pay rate. For casual employees, you'll need to add their casual loading in addition to the penalty rates.
If you have employees who work their shifts on public holidays, you'll need to follow the rules set by the National Employment Standards. The National Employment Standards are 11 minimum employment entitlements that have to be provided to all employees. Public holidays are one of those entitlements. It's important to know when public holidays are because employees can get different entitlements on these days according to the standards.
If you have an employee that works on a public holiday, they must be paid 250% of their ordinary hourly rate. For example, Mason is a full-time employee in the Social and Community Services sector. He had to work on the 3rd of May, which was Labor Day in Queensland. He's classified as a Level 7 employee under the SCHADS Award, so his ordinary hourly pay rate is $58.23. On Labor Day, though, Mason's hourly rate was 2.5 times that, so he got paid $145.58 per hour.
Remember, if you have any casual employees working on a public holiday, you'll have to pay them 275% of their ordinary hourly rate, which is 250% for public holidays plus 25% for their casual loading. For example, Mary works for the same company as Mason and also had to work on Labor Day. She's a casual Level 2 employee, and her ordinary hourly rate is $41.75. On Labor Day, Mary's hourly rate was 2.75 times that, so she got paid $114.84 per hour.
Lastly, we have recall shifts. A recall to work simply means that you've been called back to work after your shift has already been completed. Because of the burden and inconvenience of being called back to perform duties, the SCHADS Award requires employers to pay an overtime rate. If you recall an employee back to work after they've already left the premises, you'll have to pay them an overtime rate for at least 2 hours, even if they only perform duties for 30 minutes. They won't have to stay for the entire 2 hours if their duties have been performed, but you have to pay them an overtime rate.
The overtime rates from Monday to Saturday work are 150% of the employee's ordinary hourly rate for the first 2 hours and then 200% after that. So, if Mason were recalled to work on a regular Tuesday, not a public holiday, after leaving the premises when his shift ended, his employer would need to pay him 1.5 times his ordinary hourly rate, which is $58.23. He was at work for 1 and 1/2 hours after being recalled, but his employer must pay him 2 hours. So Mason must be paid 1.5 × $116.46, which totals $174.79.
So those are all the rules around the different shifts. You'll need to make sure that you're staying on top of the shifts your employees are working, especially if they have special requirements. If you don't, you risk having the Fair Work Commission knocking on your door. In the next module, we'll tackle hours of work. See you there.