SCHADS payroll software

The Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award — known as the SCHADS Award — is the Fair Work instrument that governs pay and conditions for the majority of home care and community-based aged care workers in Australia. It is not optional, it is not advisory, and it is not forgiving. Providers who get SCHADS wrong face underpayment claims, Fair Work Ombudsman audits, union action, and reputational damage that no amount of crisis communications can undo. Despite this, SCHADS compliance remains one of the most common failure points in aged care workforce management. The Award's layered classification structure, penalty rate bands, travel time obligations, and minimum engagement rules create a compliance surface that manual processes and generic payroll systems routinely get wrong. This article breaks down the key SCHADS obligations that home care providers must get right — and where the most costly mistakes are made.

The SCHADS Schedule B (SACS) defines 8 pay levels, with multiple pay points within each — 27 SACS pay points, from L1.1 through L8.3. Home care employees delivering aged-care services use Schedule F (Home Care Aged Care), which has six classifications, Levels 1–6. These are different schedules, not interchangeable grading scales. Read the classification descriptors and translation arrangements in MA000100, including Schedules B, F and G, before selecting a rate.

Under Schedule F, Level 1 is introductory, for an employee with less than three months of aged-carer experience; Level 2 is Home Carer, with three months or more. Level 3 is Qualified and requires a Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing) or an equivalent qualification. Level 4 is Senior and requires that qualification plus four years’ experience classified at Level 3 after 1 January 2025. Level 5 is Specialist, where the employer requires a Certificate IV in Ageing Support or equivalent for the duties. Level 6 is Team Leader, requiring a Certificate IV in Ageing Support or equivalent as an employer requirement for the duties, and a requirement to supervise and train other home-care aged-care employees. Existing employees may also be subject to Schedule G translation arrangements; do not ignore that history.

Classification is determined using the applicable schedule, actual role, qualifications and any specified experience requirements. A Certificate IV does not automatically mean SACS Level 4, and SACS Levels 7 or 8 are not generic classifications for every senior aged-care clinician. Nurses may be covered by a different award. A job title or a copied employment-contract label is not enough to select the correct schedule.

The risk runs in both directions. Over-classification can inflate labour costs, while under-classification can create underpayment liability across successive pay cycles. Map roles against the correct descriptors and reassess when duties, qualifications or responsibilities change. Retain the reason for the decision with the worker record so the payroll team can explain which schedule and rate apply.

SCHADS afternoon shifts, night shifts, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays have distinct rules. Under clauses 29.2 and 29.3, an afternoon shift finishes after 8 pm and at or before midnight Monday to Friday and attracts a 12.5% loading for the whole shift. A night shift finishes after midnight or starts before 6 am Monday to Friday and attracts a 15% loading for the whole shift. These are shift definitions, not a rule to pay only hours after 8 pm or midnight at a higher rate.

Ordinary Saturday work is 150% for permanent employees and 175% for casual employees; ordinary Sunday work is 200% for permanent employees and 225% for casual employees under clause 26. Casual weekend rates include the 25% casual loading, so it is not added again. Public-holiday work is 250% for permanent employees and 275% for casual employees under clause 34. Weekend premiums replace shift premiums for those ordinary hours; overtime has its own substitution rules. These figures are total rates, not percentages to add to base pay.

For an ordinary Monday-to-Friday shift from 4 pm to 1 am, the finish after midnight makes it a night shift under clause 29.2(b). The night loading applies to the whole ordinary shift, subject to applicable award conditions. The ordinary night loading applies to the whole shift, rather than only the hours after midnight. A dayworker working outside the ordinary span requires separate overtime consideration; do not assume that every employee has been engaged as a shiftworker.

Statura describes 15-minute segments as part of its costing workflow. The award does not mandate that software method, and segmenting must preserve the whole-shift entitlement where it applies. Boundaries still matter where different rules apply, such as a public holiday or weekend, but a smaller calculation interval cannot replace the legal shift definition. Check the award’s shiftwork, weekend and public-holiday clauses and reconcile the resulting components rather than assuming a segmented result is automatically compliant.

Full-time SCHADS employees work 38 ordinary hours per week or an average of 38 hours, using the arrangements in clause 25.1, including fortnightly or four-week averaging. Overtime is not limited to crossing 38 hours in a single week. Under clause 28.1(a), work beyond rostered ordinary hours on a day or shift, and dayworker work outside the ordinary span, also attracts the applicable overtime treatment.

For permanent full-time home-care, disability-services and day-care employees, authorised Monday-to-Saturday overtime is 150% for the first two hours and 200% thereafter. For full-time SACS and crisis-accommodation employees the initial period is three hours. Sunday overtime is 200% and public-holiday overtime 250%. These overtime rates replace applicable shift and weekend premiums rather than stacking with them. Part-time and casual overtime conditions differ: clause 28.1(b) addresses 38 hours per week or 76 per fortnight, ten hours per day or shift, work outside the dayworker span, and a specific agreed sleepover-related twelve-hour arrangement. Confirm the employment type and actual work pattern before applying a threshold.

For home-care providers, travel time between clients during a shift is paid working time. Capture the journey as well as the client visit; travel-time treatment and the vehicle allowance are separate questions. Fair Work’s travel-time guidance distinguishes paid travel within a shift or minimum-payment period from travel in a genuine unpaid break. Work-related vehicle use is a separate payment question. Where the employer requires and authorises the employee’s own vehicle, clause 20.7(aa) provides $1.05 per kilometre from 1 September 2026 to 28 February 2027. Clause 20.7(a) specifies $1.01 per kilometre for 1 July to 31 August 2026 and from 1 March 2027. Check the effective date rather than carrying a temporary allowance forward indefinitely.

• Sleepovers have separate provisions in clause 25.7. The sleepover spans eight continuous hours and attracts an allowance of 4.9% of the standard rate per night. Work during the sleepover is paid at the prescribed overtime rate with a minimum payment equivalent to one hour; work exceeding one hour is paid for its duration. The clause does not state a separate one-hour minimum for each disturbance. Where work is rostered immediately before or after the sleepover, at least one of those periods must be rostered or paid for at least four hours, with the sleepover allowance additional.

The June 2026 changes also affect hours and shift treatment around sleepovers: the agreed twelve-hour ordinary-shift arrangement in clause 25.1(c), the related overtime conditions in clause 28.1(b), and the separate before/after loading assessment in clause 29.3(d). Check these with the current award’s overtime, travel, allowance and sleepover provisions, rather than applying an old overnight-shift shortcut.

SCHADS minimum payments depend on sector and employment type. Clause 10.5 requires part-time and casual social-and-community-services employees, except when undertaking disability-services work, to be paid at least three hours for each shift or work period in a broken shift. All other part-time and casual employees, including home-care employees, have a two-hour minimum. These are minimum payments at the appropriate rate even when actual work is shorter.

Use clause 10.5 for minimum payments: clause 10.4 concerns casual loading, while clause 10.5 contains the minimum-payment rules. Clause 25.2(a) defines the dayworker span of ordinary hours; it does not establish a blanket three-hour minimum for full-time home-care employees. Separate special provisions, including sleepover-adjacent work and recalls, must be checked where relevant.

A part-time home-care worker rostered for one 45-minute visit cannot simply be paid for 45 minutes if the two-hour minimum payment applies. For a broken shift, check each paid work period rather than adding all visits together and assuming the daily total satisfies every minimum. Where a break falls within a minimum-payment period, clause 25.6(c) says it counts as worked time and does not create a break for the broken-shift definition.

For part-time employees, clauses 10.3(c)–(f) require a written agreement covering guaranteed ordinary hours, working days and start/finish times. Variations to the agreement are by agreement in writing. An employee may agree to additional hours beyond guaranteed hours; the employer cannot require those extra hours under clause 10.3(f). Such hours are not automatically overtime solely because they exceed the guarantee, but the overtime triggers in clause 28.1(b), including daily limits, still apply. Staying below 38 hours does not make every additional shift ordinary time.

• Casual employees receive a 25% loading under clause 10.4. For ordinary weekday work the base rate is multiplied by 1.25. Published casual penalty rates already include that loading: Saturday 175%, Sunday 225%, and public holidays 275%. Do not multiply a permanent Sunday rate of 200% by 1.25 to produce 250%, or a permanent public-holiday rate of 250% to produce 312.5%. Use the applicable all-inclusive casual rate and check minimum payments, part-time agreements and casual loading in MA000100.

Broken shifts under clause 25.6 apply to home-care employees and SACS employees undertaking disability-services work. A broken shift has two paid work periods with one unpaid break other than a meal break. Three paid periods with two unpaid breaks require employee agreement under the clause. An ordinary unpaid meal break alone does not create a broken shift.

Under clause 20.12, the allowance for one unpaid break is 1.7% of the standard rate, $21.81 per broken shift; for two unpaid breaks it is 2.25%, $28.87. These monetary amounts reflect the rates effective from 1 July 2026 in the consolidated award checked on 12 October 2026. The allowances are separate from the wages payable for the paid work periods.

The maximum broken-shift span is twelve hours from the start of the first work period to the end of the last. Work beyond that span is paid at double time under clause 25.6(f). Minimum payments under clause 10.5 apply to each relevant work period. Weekend, overtime and public-holiday treatment still requires review, and clause 25.6(e) has specific shift-loading rules for the individual periods.

For example, two home-care work periods of 90 minutes and two hours separated by a genuine unpaid break would require a two-hour minimum payment for the first period as well as the second, plus the applicable broken-shift allowance. Check whether the gap is truly unpaid: paid travel between clients must not be converted into a break merely because it occurs between appointments. Review the broken-shift and allowance clauses in MA000100 before approving the pattern.

Classification, travel time, shift interpretation, records and minimum payments are practical payroll checks for home-care providers. Review them together, because a correct hourly rate cannot fix missing hours or the wrong employment category.

• Incorrect classification can underpay workers across every affected pay cycle. Compare the actual role with the appropriate schedule, including any qualification, experience and translation conditions, rather than relying on a job title. Keep the basis for the classification decision available for later review.
• Missing travel time between client visits during a shift omits paid working time. Record the visit chain and journey duration, and assess an authorised vehicle allowance separately. A gap between appointments is not, by itself, evidence that the worker was on an unpaid break.
• Penalty rate errors on overnight shifts include splitting whole-shift afternoon or night entitlements into clock-hour bands. Other errors include adding casual loading twice or stacking weekend premiums onto overtime. Use the applicable shift definition and substitution rules before reviewing a cost breakdown.
• Record-keeping failures make it harder to reconcile the roster with actual work. Keep start and finish times, breaks, travel, additional work and corrections clear so a reviewer can understand the paid hours and entitlements. Investigate disagreements rather than automatically accepting the original roster as proof of delivery.
• Minimum engagement breaches occur when a visit or paid broken-shift period is shorter than the applicable minimum and payroll pays only the appointment duration. Check the sector, employment type and clause 10.5 rule for each applicable period. The award’s employment and hours provisions provide the basis for these checks; software warnings support review but do not remove the employer’s obligations.

Statura Care’s Rostering module includes a SCHADS Award calculator covering the published SACS pay-point grid and Schedule F home-care aged-care classifications. Worker classifications, segmented shift costing, penalty components, overtime and allowances can be reviewed together. A fifteen-minute calculation interval is a product method, not an award requirement; confirm that the result preserves whole-shift entitlements and applicable substitution rules.

Roster managers can review shift-cost projections before publication, including the effect of changing coverage or extending a shift. Existing product content describes overtime checks, travel chains, minimum-engagement controls and payroll-ready pay components. Compare forecast inputs with authorised actual work before approving payroll; a forecast is not proof of the employee’s final entitlement.

Combined with workforce records, the workflow supports classification review and the supporting contract and credential context. Keep rate-effective dates and export mappings under review, especially when monetary allowances or working arrangements change. Use the itemised breakdown to explain discrepancies rather than treating the final total as a compliance guarantee.

For a demonstration, reproduce the Saturday shift in the worked example above, then test an ordinary weekday night shift and a broken shift. Check that the night loading, minimum payments, travel time and allowances follow the applicable clauses. Use Fair Work’s current SCHADS Award as the reference for the review, and retain the result with the payroll decision.