Enter one worker’s week. Twelve rules run over it: minimum engagement, the break between shifts, broken shifts and their span, daily and weekly overtime, the meal break and the paid tea break, and sleepovers — their length, how many in a day, the work beside one and the rest after one. Each flag shows its clause, what it costs and where the Fair Work Ombudsman says so.
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The Monday broken shift runs 07:00–20:30 — a 13.5h span, over the 12h maximum for a broken shift.
Past an award limit
Only 9.5h break before this shift
They finish Monday 20:30 and start again Tuesday 06:00 — 9.5h rest, under the 10h break required between rostered shifts.
Costs money or needs a decision
11h rostered that day
They are rostered 11h on Thursday, over the 10h of ordinary hours in a day — the excess attracts overtime rates.
From the example week below.
The check
One week, twelve rules, and what each flag costs.
Change a time and the flags change with it. The thresholds start at the defaults Corella ships with, and you can set them to your own agreement.
A simplified check, not legal or payroll advice. It applies twelve rostering rules to the shifts you enter, with the thresholds shown. The worker's stream and employment type, an enterprise agreement or an individual flexibility arrangement can all change the answer, so check anything that matters against the award or with the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94.
One worker’s week
This is an example week, so you can see what the flags look like. Change any of it, or clear it and enter your own.
DayStartsFinishesUnpaid breakRemove
Shift spanBroken shift
Shift spanBreak between shiftsMeal breakBroken shift
Break between shifts
Minimum engagement
Daily overtime
Meal break
A finish at or before the start runs past midnight. The unpaid break is the meal break inside the shift — 30 to 60 minutes past five hours of work; a shorter one reads as the paid tea break. A gap between two shifts is its own row. Tick Sleepover on the sleepover period’s own row, with the work before and after it as rows that meet it — or on one row from the start of the evening’s work to the end of the morning’s.
Paste a week from a spreadsheetThresholds, and your hourly rate
These start at the defaults Corella ships with. Change them to match your stream or your agreement.
What the twelve rules found
3 past an award limit · 5 to review
Across 7 shifts and 42.5h of paid time.
Past an award limitShift span
Broken shift spans 13.5h
The Monday broken shift runs 07:00–20:30 — a 13.5h span, over the 12h maximum for a broken shift.
What it costs: 1.5h at double time (clause 25.6(f)).
They finish Monday 20:30 and start again Tuesday 06:00 — 9.5h rest, under the 10h break required between rostered shifts.
What it costs: No pay rate attaches to it: the break itself is the entitlement, so the fix is on the roster. If overtime is what cuts the break short, clause 28.3 pays double time until they have had 10 hours off.
The Monday 15:00–20:30 is 5.5h of work with no break rostered — past five hours the award gives an unpaid meal break of 30 to 60 minutes (clause 27.1(a)). Roster one, or it is paid as overtime until it is taken (clause 27.1(b)) — unless a meal with the person they support is part of the work (clause 27.1(c)).
What it costs: Worked through, it is paid as overtime until the break is taken (clause 27.1(b)). A break longer than an hour splits the shift, which may make it a broken shift.
The Saturday 10:00–16:00 is 6h of work with no break rostered — past five hours the award gives an unpaid meal break of 30 to 60 minutes (clause 27.1(a)). Roster one, or it is paid as overtime until it is taken (clause 27.1(b)) — unless a meal with the person they support is part of the work (clause 27.1(c)).
What it costs: Worked through, it is paid as overtime until the break is taken (clause 27.1(b)). A break longer than an hour splits the shift, which may make it a broken shift.
From the first full pay period on or after 1 June 2026, work immediately before and after a sleepover is one shift, and the sleepover is never the break between shifts. By agreement, a shift with a sleepover in it can carry up to 12 ordinary hours, with no more than 8 on either side; without that agreement, part-time and casual overtime starts after 10.
To check one, tick Sleepover on its row. Enter the sleepover period on its own row with the work before and after it as rows that meet it — for example 16:00–22:00, then 22:00–06:00 ticked, then 06:00–09:00 — or as one ticked row from the start of the evening's work to the end of the morning's. Either way the work either side is read as one shift.
Each sleepover also needs at least 4 hours' work, rostered or paid, in the period immediately before it or the one immediately after (clause 25.7(f)). Entered as separate rows, the check measures each side exactly; as one ticked row, it knows how much work the row holds and asks you to check which side it falls on.
What each check looks at, the threshold it starts from, the award clause behind it and what it costs. Print it for the rostering desk.
Rule 1 · Clause 10.5
Minimum engagement
Each shift, and each period of work in a broken shift, against the minimum payment — 3 hours when the week is ticked as social and community services work outside disability services.
Starts at: 2 hours
The award: Part-time and casual employees are paid for at least 2 hours for each shift or period of work in a broken shift — 3 hours for social and community services employees, except when they are doing disability services work.
What it costs: The shortfall is paid anyway: hours on the payslip that nobody works.
The rest between the end of one shift and the start of the next, when the next starts on a different day.
Starts at: 10 hours
The award: At least 10 hours between the end of one shift or period of work and the start of another. By agreement it can be 8 hours on either side of a sleepover shift — and a sleepover is never the break.
What it costs: No pay rate attaches to it: the break itself is the entitlement, so the fix is on the roster. If overtime is what cuts the break short, clause 28.3 pays double time until they have had 10 hours off.
Periods of work on the same day with an unpaid gap between them. Periods that touch are not a broken shift, and a gap of one minute is. Ticked as work outside disability services, any broken shift is past the award.
Starts at: Up to 2 unpaid breaks
The award: One unpaid break, or two by an agreement made before each occasion (or written into the worker's agreed regular pattern). Only home care employees, and social and community services employees doing disability services work, can be rostered a broken shift.
What it costs: An allowance per broken shift: $21.81 with 1 unpaid break, $28.87 with 2 (from 1 July 2026).
Paid hours in a calendar day, after unpaid meal breaks, and the hours of a shift around a sleepover, either side of it.
Starts at: 10 hours
The award: Part-time and casual employees are paid overtime for time over 10 hours a day or a shift. Full-time employees are paid overtime for time beyond their rostered ordinary hours. By agreement, a shift with a sleepover in it can run to 12 ordinary hours, with no more than 8 on either side.
What it costs: Time and a half for the first 2 hours, double time after; double time on a Sunday and double time and a half on a public holiday. Full-time social and community services and crisis accommodation employees get time and a half for the first 3 hours. On an agreed 12-hour shift around a sleepover, part-time and casual overtime starts after 12 hours (clause 28.1(b)(iii)).
The award: Part-time and casual employees are paid overtime for time over 38 hours in a week, or 76 in a fortnight.
What it costs: Time and a half for the first 2 hours, double time after; double time on a Sunday. Hours already paid as daily overtime are not counted again.
Each row ticked as a sleepover, against the sleepover period: shorter than it, or rostered longer.
Starts at: 8 hours
The award: A sleepover is a continuous period of 8 hours overnight at the premises where the client is, with a separate room and a bed. Work the worker is asked to do during it is paid at the overtime rate, at least an hour each time (clause 25.7(e)).
What it costs: The sleepover allowance, 4.9% of the standard rate for each night, is paid on top (clause 25.7(d)). Hours rostered as sleepover past its period are work: roster them as work, either side of it.
The rest from the end of the shift around a sleepover to the start of the next shift, and the shorter rest before another sleepover where you allow it.
Starts at: 10 hours (8 before another sleepover)
The award: At least 10 hours between the end of one shift and the start of another. By agreement it can be 8 hours between a shift and the shift directly before a sleepover, or after the shift directly following one. The sleepover itself is never the break: work immediately before and after it is one shift.
What it costs: No pay rate attaches to it: the break is the entitlement, so the fix is on the roster.
The work immediately before and after each sleepover, for at least 4 hours of it on one side.
Starts at: 4 hours on one side
The award: Work may be rostered immediately before and/or immediately after a sleepover, and at least 4 hours' work must be rostered, or paid, for at least one of those periods.
What it costs: Whatever of the 4 hours is not rostered is paid anyway, on top of the sleepover allowance.
Each period of work past five hours — visits straight after one another count together — for a rostered break of 30 to 60 minutes.
Starts at: 30 to 60 minutes past 5 hours
The award: An employee who works more than five hours is entitled to an unpaid meal break of at least 30 minutes and at most 60. Where a meal with the person they support is part of the work, that time is paid (clause 27.1(c)).
What it costs: Worked through, it is paid as overtime until the break is taken (clause 27.1(b)). A break longer than an hour splits the shift, which may make it a broken shift.
Each rostered break under 30 minutes, which the award makes the paid tea break.
Starts at: Under 30 minutes
The award: A paid 10-minute tea break in each four hours worked, counted as time worked. An unpaid meal break is 30 to 60 minutes (clause 27.1(a)).
What it costs: A break that short, taken off the paid hours, takes a paid tea break off their pay. Set it to none, or to a meal break of 30 minutes or more.
A simplified check, not legal or payroll advice. It applies twelve rostering rules to the shifts you enter, with the thresholds shown. The worker's stream and employment type, an enterprise agreement or an individual flexibility arrangement can all change the answer, so check anything that matters against the award or with the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94. Checked against the award as consolidated by the Fair Work Commission to 1 September 2026, with its sleepover rules as they read from the first full pay period on or after 1 June 2026. From corellacare.com.au/tools/schads-roster-check/
Know its edges
What it leaves to your payroll and to you.
A roster can clear all twelve rules and still be paid wrongly. These are the parts your payroll and your agreements decide.
Pay for ordinary hours
Saturday and Sunday rates (clause 26), afternoon and night shift allowances (clause 29), the casual loading and public holidays. The cost lines here price only what each rule adds.
The fortnight and the roster cycle
Ordinary hours averaged over a fortnight (76) or four weeks (152) under clause 25.1(a). The weekly rule here counts one week, Monday to Sunday.
The rest of the rostering rules
Days off, roster notice and changes to a posted roster, client cancellations, 24-hour care, excursions and remote work.
Your agreement
An enterprise agreement or an individual flexibility arrangement can change every threshold here. That is what the settings are for.
In Corella
The same rules, before the week is worked.
These are the award checks Corella runs over a draft roster, sleepovers and breaks included. They show as a chip on the shift, a banner on the week and a warning when someone is assigned — and the decision stays with you, because a provider sometimes has to wear the overtime knowingly. The engagement, break, span, overtime and sleepover thresholds are set per organisation, every rule has its own switch, and Corella's pay engine applies shiftworker loadings, sleepover and broken-shift allowances, on-call pay, every state's public holidays, travel and kilometres in labelled pay bands.
No. The checks run in your browser: nothing you type is sent anywhere or saved, and reloading the page clears it. There is no account and no sign-in.
What is a broken shift under the SCHADS Award?
A day's work split into periods by unpaid breaks, other than a meal break. The award allows one unpaid break, or two by an agreement made before each occasion. The whole shift can span up to 12 hours, and work beyond that is paid at double time. The broken shift allowance is $21.81 with one unpaid break and $28.87 with two, from 1 July 2026. Only home care employees, and social and community services employees doing disability services work, can be rostered one (clauses 25.6 and 20.12).
How long must the break between two shifts be?
At least 10 hours between the end of one shift or period of work and the start of another (clause 25.4). By agreement it can be 8 hours on either side of a sleepover shift. A sleepover itself is not a break: from the first full pay period on or after 1 June 2026, work immediately before and after a sleepover is part of the same shift.
When does overtime start for part-time and casual workers?
After 10 hours in a day or a shift, and after 38 hours in a week or 76 in a fortnight (clause 28.1(b)). It is paid at time and a half for the first 2 hours and double time after, double time on a Sunday, and double time and a half on a public holiday. A shift with a sleepover in it can run to 12 hours before overtime, if the worker has agreed to that.
What is the minimum payment for a short shift?
Part-time and casual employees are paid for at least 2 hours for each shift, or each period of work in a broken shift. Social and community services employees get 3 hours, except when they are doing disability services work (clause 10.5). Full-time employees have no minimum payment under that clause.
How do I check a sleepover?
Tick Sleepover on its row. Enter the sleepover period on its own row with the work before and after it as rows that meet it, or as one ticked row from the start of the evening's work to the end of the morning's. The check reads the work either side as one shift, flags a sleepover shorter or longer than its 8 hours, looks for at least 4 hours' work on one side of it (clause 25.7(f)), and checks the rest after the shift around it: 10 hours, or 8 before another sleepover where you allow it.
When is a meal break due, and is a tea break paid?
An employee who works more than five hours is entitled to an unpaid meal break of 30 to 60 minutes; worked through, it is paid as overtime until it is taken (clause 27.1). The tea break is paid: 10 minutes in each four hours worked, counted as time worked (clause 27.2). So the check reads a rostered unpaid break under 30 minutes as a tea break taken off the pay, and looks for a break of 30 to 60 minutes in each period of work past five hours.
Is this the same check Corella runs?
These are the award checks Corella runs over a draft roster before the week is worked — twelve rules, with the same rules and the same default thresholds, sleepovers and breaks included. In Corella they appear as a chip on the shift, a banner on the week and a warning when someone is assigned, and the decision stays with you: a provider sometimes has to wear the overtime knowingly. Every threshold is set per organisation.
