What is Minimum engagement?

Minimum engagement is the shortest period an employee must be paid for when called to work, regardless of how long the shift actually runs. Under the SCHADS Award, disability support workers generally have a two-hour minimum for part-time and casual engagements, with some exceptions for particular arrangements.

This is why very short supports are commercially difficult: a 45-minute medication prompt still costs two hours of wages, while the claim covers 45 minutes.

Providers commonly address this by clustering short supports geographically and by time, so a worker’s minimum engagement is filled with billable work rather than paid idle time.

Related terms

SCHADS AwardThe SCHADS Award is the modern award covering most Australian disability and community services employees. It sets minimum pay rates by classification level, and the rules for penalties, overtime, broken shifts, sleepovers, on-call, travel reimbursement and minimum engagement periods. Compliance is a legal obligation, not a payroll preference.Broken shiftA broken shift is a shift split into two or three separate periods of work in one day, with unpaid breaks between them. Under the SCHADS Award a broken shift attracts an allowance, and the number of breaks determines which allowance applies. It is common in disability support, where morning and evening routines sit hours apart.Casual loadingCasual loading is the additional percentage paid to casual employees in place of paid leave and notice entitlements. Under the SCHADS Award it is 25 per cent of the minimum hourly rate. It applies to the base rate, and the interaction between casual loading and penalty rates is set by the award rather than chosen by the employer.

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