Hours of work and rostering in the Aged Care Award
Find out about hours of work and rostering for employees in the aged care industry.
On this page:
- Ordinary hours
- Rostering
- Rostered days off
- Accumulated days off
- Broken shifts
- Breaks
- Sleepovers
- Tools and resources
- Related information
Ordinary hours
Under the Aged Care Award, full-time employees work an average of 38 ordinary hours per week.
Ordinary hours can be averaged over different periods. This can allow an employee to work more than 38 hours in one week and less in the next.
Ordinary hours of work can be arranged in the following ways:
- 76 hours across a fortnight
- 114 hours across 21 days
- 152 hours in a 4-week period.
Over any 28 day period or roster cycle, the maximum number of working days is 20. Any accrued days off (ADO) that are part of the roster cycle will count as a working day.
The maximum hours per day for all employees, including casuals, is:
- 8 hours on a day shift, or
- 10 hours on a night shift.
Example: Employee working a fortnight roster cycle
Tom is a full-time personal care worker in a residential aged care facility.
Staff at the facility work night shifts of 10 hours each shift. In week one of the roster cycle, Tom works 4 10 hour shifts.
In the second week of the roster cycle, Tom works 3 10 hour shifts and one 6 hour shift.
As the total hours Tom works for the roster cycle is 76, no overtime applies.
Find more information on hours of work from our Hours of work page.
Span of Hours
Ordinary hours of work for a day worker must be scheduled between 6 am and 6 pm Monday to Friday.
An employee who is regularly rostered to work their ordinary hours outside the span of ordinary hours of work is known as a shiftworker.
For more information, go to Shiftworkers.
Minimum engagements
Full-time employees receive a minimum payment of 4 hours for each shift or engagement, even if they are rostered to work less than four hours.
For part-time and casual employees, the minimum payment is 2 hours for each shift or engagement, regardless of how long the employee was rostered to work.
Example: Employee being paid for minimum engagement
Emma is a casual food service employee working in a residential accommodation facility. As Emma is casual, Emma’s shifts should be at least 2 hours long.
The facility Emma works at provides multiple meals a day. On the weekend, many residents were taken out of the facility by their families, leaving fewer residents on-site for lunch.
Most of the preparation was done in the morning and Emma was able to serve the residents their meal in 90 minutes.
Emma’s supervisor told her she could finish early as the lunch session was complete.
Emma still got paid the minimum 2 hours for her shift.
Tip: Download the Record My Hours app
Our Record My Hours app makes it quick and easy for employees to record and track the hours they work.
The app lets you:
- add rosters to a calendar
- receive notification reminders about upcoming shifts
- take photos of information that belongs to an employee, like their own pay slips.
It's free and available in 18 languages.
Rostering
Rosters need to be displayed in a convenient location for all employees to access. Rosters must be available for viewing at least two weeks before the start of the first working period.
Rosters don’t need to display all shifts for casual and relief employees.
Changes to rosters
Permanent employees should be notified of any changes to their roster at least 7 days in advance. In case of an emergency, or where an employee is absent due to illness, rosters may be altered on shorter notice to ensure continued operations.
A part-time employee can mutually agree to work additional hours without 7 days notice. In these cases, a part-time employee must still have 2 rostered days off in that week, or 4 rostered days off in that fortnight.
Changes to a roster can be communicated via:
- telephone
- direct contact
- mail or email
- any other electronic method.
These rostering rules don’t apply to hostel supervisors.
Rostered days off
Full-time and part-time employees have the right to take regular days off. These are called rostered days off (RDOs).
The number of days off a full-time or part-time employee can take depends on the length of the roster period.
| Roster period | Full days free from duty |
|---|---|
| 7 days | 2 |
| 14 days | 4 |
| 28 days | 8 |
Wherever possible, RDOs should be scheduled consecutively. This means RDOs should be grouped together instead of single days during a rostered period.
Accumulated days off
Accumulated days off (ADO) are additional days off that an employee accumulates based on their ordinary hours of work arrangement. The accumulation and taking of ADOs for full-time employees form part of their ordinary hours.
A full-time employee’s ordinary hours can be structured to allow for the accumulation of an ADO.
Where possible, the taking of ADOs should be scheduled to allow them to be consecutive with an employee’s RDO. ADOs can’t be scheduled on public holidays.
Example: Accrual and scheduling of an ADO
Joe is a full-time employee in an aged care facility.
Joe works a 4 weekly roster. Each shift Joe works is 8 hours with time worked over 7.6 hours accruing towards their ADO.
In the fourth week of the roster cycle, Joe is scheduled to take their ADO. Joe’s employer schedules the ADO to be on a Monday so it follows their previous 2 consecutive days off. This gives him 3 days off in a row.
ADOs must be taken within 12 months of the date of accrual. If employment ends with any ADOs not taken, the ADOs must be paid at ordinary rates as part of the employee’s final payment.
Broken shifts
A broken shift is a shift that is broken into 2 periods of work. It includes rest breaks but does not include unpaid meal breaks.
Broken shifts can only be worked by part-time or casual employees. Each part of a broken shift must meet the minimum engagement requirement of 2 hours.
The span of hours between the start of the first working period and the end of the last working period can’t be more than 12 hours.
You can find more information on what shift allowances may apply in Shiftwork.
Example: Broken shift and afternoon allowance
Jay is a casual personal care worker in an aged care facility.
Jay is rostered to work a broken shift to help around lunch and dinner time when the residents have their meals.
Their first working period is from 11 am to 2 pm and the second working period is from 4 pm to 6 pm.
Because their first working period started between 10 am and 1 pm, Jay is entitled to be paid the afternoon shift allowance of 10% for their entire shift under the Aged Care Award.
You can also access our Library article for more information: Shiftwork & broken shifts in the Aged Care Award.
Breaks
Under the Aged Care Award, employees may be entitled to two types of breaks based on the length of their shift. These breaks are:
- meal breaks
- tea breaks.
A meal break is a 30 - 60 minute unpaid break that doesn’t count as time worked, except for shiftworkers.
A tea break is a 10 minute paid rest period that counts as time worked. Where an employee is entitled to two tea breaks, they can be taken as one 20 minute break by agreement.
| Number of hours worked | Tea breaks | Meal breaks |
|---|---|---|
| More than 5 hours and less than 7.6 | 1 | 1 |
| More than 7.6 | 2 | 1 |
Sleepovers
Under the Aged Care Award, employees may be rostered to work a sleepover shift. Sleepovers can only be rostered if there is a shift immediately before or after the sleepover.
Casual employees can only be rostered to work a sleepover shift if no full-time or part-time employees are available.
A sleepover means staying overnight at the facility to be on-call in case of emergencies. The span of a sleepover is between 8 – 10 hours. Employees engaged on a sleepover shift need to be provided:
- free accommodation
- meals for the sleepover night
- a private room with a bed to sleep in
- access and use of staff facilities or resident facilities as needed.
For each night spent on a sleepover, employees are entitled to a sleepover allowance. The allowance is 5.2% of the standard pay rate.
Work during sleepover
During a sleepover period, employees are not required to perform regular duties. However, employees are required to respond to emergency situations or events requiring immediate attention.
All time worked during a sleepover is counted as time worked.
Employees must get at least 8 consecutive hours off between a sleepover shift and the next regular shift to ensure adequate rest.
Sleepovers will be paid:
- for full-time employees, at overtime rates
- for part-time and casual employees, at their ordinary rates including any shift and weekend penalties that may apply. If part-time and casual employees exceed their maximum ordinary hours they will be entitled to receive overtime rates.
Example: Work during a sleepover
Aaron is a full-time personal care worker at an independent living facility in the aged care sector.
Aaron works:
- regular shifts in the evening 5 times a week
- an additional sleepover immediately following one his regular evening shifts twice a week.
During these sleepover shifts, Aaron is provided with separate living facilities on-site but is required to be on-call if there is an emergency for one of the residents.
During one of his sleepover shifts, a resident has a medical episode and Aaron is required to provide assistance while waiting for an ambulance.
Aaron works for a total of 2 hours of on this occasion.
Aaron is paid overtime for the 2 hours because he is full-time and was required to work during his sleepover.
Tools and resources