SCHADS Award Sleepover Shifts Explained

Under the SCHADS Award, a sleepover shift is a rostered period where a support worker stays overnight at a participant’s home and is available to respond if needed, but is not performing active work. Workers receive a flat allowance of $62.87 per sleepover as at 1 July 2026, plus their ordinary hourly rate for any active work performed during the night.

This page is part of our complete guide to the SCHADS Award.

What is a sleepover shift under the SCHADS Award?

A sleepover shift is a rostered period where a support worker stays at a participant’s home overnight, available to respond if needed but not performing active work. The worker sleeps during this time. They are on call, not on shift.

Sleepover shifts apply across disability support services, including Supported Independent Living (SIL) and in-home care. The SCHADS Award (MA000100) sets out how these shifts are paid for workers in the social, community, home care and disability services sector.

What is the SCHADS sleepover allowance for 2026?

Workers receive a flat allowance per rostered sleepover, regardless of how many hours the rest period covers. The allowance applies to the rest period only. It does not cover active work performed during the night.

As at 1 July 2026, the sleepover allowance is $62.87 per sleepover (Fair Work Ombudsman, SCHADS Award MA000100).

Payment component	Rate (from 1 July 2026)
Sleepover allowance (flat, per sleepover)	$62.87
Active work during sleepover	Ordinary hourly rate
Active work exceeding threshold	Overtime rates apply

When does overtime apply during a sleepover shift?

The sleepover allowance covers the rest period. Any time a worker performs active work during the sleepover, that time is paid at the overtime rate under clause 25.7(e) of the SCHADS Award, with a minimum of one hour per interruption. A worker called up for 20 minutes is paid one hour at the overtime rate. A worker called up for 90 minutes is paid for 90 minutes at the overtime rate.

Active work means responding to a participant’s needs: personal care, a medical incident, or behavioural support. Passive availability, e.g., where the worker is asleep and on call but not called upon, does not count as active work.

Providers need to track active work during sleepover shifts separately from the allowance period, which is what automated award interpretation in your rostering does. A worker who responds to a participant three times in a night accumulates active hours. Those hours count toward overtime calculations independently of the sleepover allowance.

How does a sleepover shift differ from a standard shift or broken shift?

The three shift types have different payment structures.

	Standard shift	Broken shift	Sleepover shift
Payment basis	Hourly rate	Hourly rate + broken shift allowance	Flat sleepover allowance + active work rate
Minimum engagement	2-3 hours (varies by classification)	2-3 hours per work period	N/A, allowance covers the full rest period
On-site overnight rest	No	No	Yes
Active work during rest	N/A	N/A	Paid separately at ordinary or overtime rate

A broken shift has two paid work periods with a gap between them. The worker is not expected to sleep or remain on site during the gap. A sleepover shift includes a rest period where the worker stays on site and is available, but is not performing active work.

Providers sometimes treat late-night active work as part of the sleepover allowance. It is not. Any work performed during the sleepover is a separate payment obligation.

What changed for sleepover shifts from 1 June 2026?

From 1 June 2026, Fair Work changed how shift allowances apply across sleepover shifts. The sleepover period is no longer treated as a break connecting two rostered periods of work.

Before 1 June 2026: The span from the start of the evening work period to the end of the morning work period could be treated as one continuous span for calculating shift penalty loadings, including afternoon and night shift allowances.

From 1 June 2026: Each work period is calculated separately. A support worker who works an evening shift, sleeps over, then works a morning shift the next day has two distinct work periods. Shift allowances apply to each period independently. Providers cannot combine the two periods for penalty calculations.

This change affects payroll for any worker who regularly works shifts on either side of a sleepover. Rostering and payroll processes need to reflect this.

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For how ShiftCare reads SCHADS rules as each shift is placed, not when it’s paid, see Workforce Intelligence.

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