Three periods of work in one day — is that a broken shift?
"A disability support worker does 8–10am, 12:30–2:30pm, and 6–8pm. What are they owed?"
That is a broken shift with 2 unpaid breaks — three portions of work. Under clause 25.6(b) it can only be worked by agreement, made before each occasion unless it's part of the agreed regular pattern, and it attracts the higher allowance: $28.87 (vs $21.81 for a one-break shift). Each portion also attracts the minimum payment — 2 hours for disability/home care work — which these 2-hour portions satisfy. The whole shift spans 8am–8pm, exactly the 12-hour maximum span under clause 25.6(f); had the last portion run past 8pm, the excess would be payable at double time. So: 6 hours at the ordinary rate, plus $28.87, plus any applicable shift loading on portions that meet the clause 29.2 definitions. One more trap: if either gap were a meal break, it wouldn't count as an unpaid break at all — a meal break doesn't make a shift broken.
Rostered 3 hours, worked 2 — what must be paid?
"A part-time SACS employee is rostered for a 3-hour team meeting but it wraps early after 2 hours. Pay 2 or 3?"
Three. Clause 10.5 sets minimum payments per shift or portion: 3 hours for social and community services employees (except when doing disability services work), 2 hours for everyone else. The employee was engaged for the shift; finishing early at the employer's initiative doesn't shrink the minimum. The same rule prices very short client visits: a 45-minute home care visit that stands alone as a shift portion is a 2-hour payment. This is the single most common underpayment we detect in timesheet audits — see our minimum engagement guide.
On-call phone call vs being recalled to work
"A worker on call takes a 5-minute phone call at 9pm, then spends 45 minutes arranging a replacement shift. What's payable?"
Three separate entitlements interact here:
- The on-call allowance (clause 20) is payable for being available at all: $25.66 per 24-hour period Monday–Friday, $50.81 on weekends and public holidays (from 1 July 2026).
- Remote work performed while on call (clause 25.10) has minimum payments: 15 minutes' pay for work between 6am and 10pm, 30 minutes between 10pm and 6am, and continuous work beyond the minimum is rounded up to the nearest 15 minutes. The 5-minute call plus 45 minutes of actioning is continuous remote work — the whole ~50 minutes is payable (rounded up), not just the phone call.
- Recall to a workplace is different again: physically attending attracts a 2-hour minimum at the applicable rate for each recall (clause 28.4).
Systems that pay only the allowance and ignore the remote-work minimums underpay every after-hours phone call. Details: on-call allowance guide.
Woken during a sleepover — what does the disturbance cost?
"A worker on a sleepover is woken at 2am for 20 minutes. What's payable?"
A minimum of 1 hour at the applicable overtime rate per disturbance (clause 25.7(e)) — on top of the $62.87 sleepover allowance. "Applicable" includes the day's penalties: a 2am Sunday disturbance is paid at Sunday overtime (double time). Each separate disturbance attracts its own one-hour minimum. And since 1 June 2026, work immediately before and after the sleepover counts as one shift for rest-break purposes, with shift loadings assessed separately per portion — the full rules are in our June 2026 sleepover changes guide and sleepover rules page.
No meal break after 5 hours — is that overtime?
"A worker does a 7-hour shift with no meal break because the client couldn't be left. Are they owed overtime?"
Yes, from the point the break was due. Clause 27.1 entitles workers to an unpaid 30–60 minute meal break after 5 hours; where the employee is required to work through it and continuously thereafter, all time worked until the break is taken is paid at overtime rates (clause 27.1(b)). Separately, if the worker must eat with clients as part of the care routine, that meal period is paid time at ordinary rates (clause 27.1(c)). Payroll rarely captures either without explicit break data on the timesheet — which is why missing break times are a red flag in audits, not a formality. See meal break rules.
Client cancels inside 7 days — including on a public holiday
"A part-time worker's shift is cancelled two days out. Do we still pay it?"
Under clause 25.5(f), when a client cancels or reschedules a home care or disability service within 7 days, a rostered full-time or part-time employee must either be given alternative work or be paid for the cancelled hours. Silently dropping the shift from the timesheet is an underpayment. The trap doubles on public holidays: if the cancelled shift fell on a public holiday, the payment obligation reflects what the employee would have earned — at public holiday rates — not a plain-rate substitute, and any replacement "make-up" shift is a new engagement with its own minimums and penalties, not a swap. Full rules: client cancellation pay.
Two workers on the same shift
"Two support workers cover the same participant 6am–2pm. How is each paid?"
Independently, from first principles. Each worker's pay is computed from their own classification, pay point, employment type and week-to-date hours — the shared client and identical hours are irrelevant. A casual Level 2.1 and a permanent Level 3.2 on the same roster line earn different base rates, different loadings, and can hit overtime thresholds on different days. The practical failure mode is copy-paste rostering: duplicating one worker's pay line onto the second worker. Every line must resolve against the individual, which is exactly how our timesheet engine evaluates shifts.