What is SCHADS Award?

Also known as: Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010

The 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.

SCHADS is complex because the sector is: a single worker may attract a weekday rate, an evening loading, a broken-shift allowance and a travel reimbursement in one day. Interpreting that by hand across a workforce is where underpayment happens, and underpayment in this sector is enforced.

The award also sets minimum engagement — generally two hours for part-time and casual employees in disability services — which is why a one-hour shift can cost more than it earns.

Award interpretation should be derived from actual worked times on an approved timesheet, not from the rostered plan, because the two differ whenever a shift starts late or runs over.

Related terms

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.SleepoverA sleepover is an arrangement where a support worker stays overnight at a participant’s home to be available if needed, and is permitted to sleep. Under the SCHADS Award it attracts a flat sleepover allowance rather than hourly pay, plus payment at the appropriate rate for any period the worker is actually woken to work.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.Minimum engagementMinimum 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.Active and passive overnightActive overnight support means a worker is awake and working through the night and is paid hourly at the applicable rate. Passive overnight, or a sleepover, means the worker is present and available but permitted to sleep, and is paid an allowance. Which applies depends on the participant’s assessed overnight support needs.

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