From the Rostery team. We build SCHADS-aware rostering and payroll software for NDIS and aged-care providers in Sydney. This is a shorter take on one of our most-read guides.
The SCHADS Award isn't hard because of one rule. It's hard because one support worker, on one ordinary day, can pick up a weekday base rate, an evening loading, a broken shift allowance and a travel payment. And the right figure depends on what actually happened, not on what the roster said.
Here's a plain-English walk through the parts that cause most of the trouble, and five quick checks you can run on last fortnight's pay.
What SCHADS covers, and what it doesn't
SCHADS covers employees in disability services, home care, social and community services, and family day care. It sets minimum rates by level and pay point, penalty rates, overtime, allowances, minimum engagement and rostering rules.
It doesn't cover independent contractors. And it doesn't set what you can charge. That's the NDIS price guide, and the two numbers have nothing to do with each other.
Penalty rates and the boundary problem
Penalties apply when work happens outside ordinary daytime hours: evenings, nights, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, with public holidays the highest.
The common mistake is a shift that crosses a boundary. A 5pm to 9pm shift, or one that runs past midnight into Saturday, gets split, and each part is paid at its own rate. The other trap is how casual loading combines with penalties, which changes the cost of every weekend shift.
Broken shifts look normal one line at a time
A broken shift is a day split into two or three periods of work with unpaid breaks between them. A 7am morning routine and a 6pm evening routine are one worker's day, not two shifts. The award pays an allowance for this, a higher one for two unpaid breaks, and it limits the overall span of the day.
Broken shift allowances get missed because each period looks like an ordinary short shift on its own. You only see the allowance when you look at the whole day.
Sleepovers: three things that cost money
A sleepover is when a worker stays overnight to be available and is allowed to sleep. The award pays a flat allowance for that, plus pay for any time the worker is woken to work.
- Time spent awake and working is paid on top of the allowance.
- Enough disturbance can change the night into active work.
- What you pay the worker and what you claim from the NDIS are different numbers.
Why a 45-minute support costs two hours
Part-time and casual disability support workers generally have a 2-hour minimum engagement. Call someone in for a 45-minute medication prompt and you pay 2 hours, while the claim covers 45 minutes.
You can't recover that gap, so the fix is in the roster: group short supports so the paid 2 hours is filled with billable work.
Fair Work gives a similar example on its own site. A part-time worker spends 90 minutes with one client in the morning, has a 3-hour break, then works 2 hours with another client. The morning has to be paid as 2 hours, and because it's a broken shift, the broken shift allowance applies too (Fair Work: hours of work in the SCHADS Award).
Pay from what happened, not from the roster
A shift rostered 9am to 1pm that ran 9:15am to 2:10pm is a different shift. It may be in a different penalty band, or tip into overtime. The right order is: the shift happens, times are captured, a supervisor approves the timesheet, and then the award is applied. That also gives you an audit trail.
The five checks
- One worker with a broken shift last fortnight: was the allowance paid?
- One sleepover with a disturbance: was the awake time paid on top?
- One shift that ran over: did pay follow the actual finish?
- One casual Saturday shift: how were loading and penalty combined?
- One 45-minute support: were 2 hours paid?
If any come back wrong, assume the error repeats every time that rule applies.
Read the full guide on Rostery
Our full article, SCHADS Award explained: penalties, broken shifts, sleepovers and overtime, has more detail and sources. For every 2026 rate in one place, see the SCHADS Award 2026 guide, and try our free SCHADS pay calculator and other tools.
Running a weekly roster review? Our simple weekly rostering checklist pairs well with the five checks above.
Rates change every July. Confirm current figures with the award or the Fair Work Ombudsman.
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