Following its review of sleepover arrangements the Fair Work Commission (FWC) made changes to the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 (SCHADS Award)
The changes came into effect from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 June 2026. The changes deal with sleepover rostering, overtime, shift structure and pay issues related to work performed before and after a sleepover period.
What has changed?
Where work is performed immediately before and immediately after a sleepover period, an employer and employee may agree to extend the maximum ordinary hours of work from 10 to 12 hours per shift.
While the SCHADS Award does not require this agreement to be in writing, employers should ensure the employee clearly understands and agrees to the arrangement, as it may defer the point at which overtime becomes payable.
In these circumstances, a maximum of eight ordinary hours may be worked before the sleepover period, and a maximum of eight ordinary hours may be worked after the sleepover period. This prevents employers from rostering 12 ordinary hours in a row before or after the sleepover.
Please see our illustration example of how the 12-hour ordinary hours arrangement and the eight-hour limits before and after a sleepover period apply in practice.
Importantly, the minimum engagement requirement remains unchanged. Where work is rostered immediately before and/or immediately after a sleepover period, the employee must be rostered for, or paid, at least four hours for at least one of those periods.
Penalties and shift allowance
The Fair Work Commission also clarified that while work performed immediately before and immediately after a sleepover period is treated as part of the same shift for rest break purposes, each period of active work must be assessed separately when determining applicable shift allowances and penalty rates. This means different shift allowances may apply before and after the sleepover period depending on the hours worked.
This clarification follows the Federal Court's decision and confirms that employers should not automatically apply a single shift allowance across the entire sleepover arrangement. Instead, the work performed before the sleepover and the work performed after the sleepover should be assessed independently under the relevant Award provisions.
To help illustrate how this operates in practice, see our example of shift allowances applying before and after a sleepover period.
Overtime clarification
The Fair Work Commission has also clarified how overtime will apply where a shift spans across two calendar days, such as a sleepover shift.
Under the updated SCHADS Award, overtime is triggered when an employee exceeds the relevant ordinary hours limit on either a day or shift basis. This clarification ensures employees do not lose an overtime entitlement simply because a shift crosses midnight, while also confirming the same hours do not attract overtime twice.
For sleepover arrangements, overtime will apply once the applicable ordinary hours limit has been exceeded. This means overtime is generally payable after more than 10 ordinary hours are worked in a shift. However, where an employer and employee have agreed to the extended sleepover arrangement, overtime will not apply until more than 12 ordinary hours are worked as part of the shift.
This change provides greater certainty for employers and employees when calculating overtime for overnight and sleepover arrangements.
Changes to Modern Awards can be difficult to understand. Our specialist team at Peninsula are available 24/7 to answer your questions and offer invaluable advice on the SCHADS Award and sleepover changes.
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