Workforce Intelligence that helps you build better rosters
The award decides the cost when you place the shift
Most SCHADS costs are decided when a shift is rostered, not when it is paid. Broken shift spans, rest gaps, overtime bands, minimum engagement and allowances are all fixed by where a shift lands in the roster. ShiftCare checks every shift against 46 award rules as it is created or changed, and each warning names the clause it relates to.
Seven days free, no credit card. SCHADS award warnings are on the Premium plan in Australia.
What the award decides at the moment you roster
SCHADS is usually read as a pay document. Read as a rostering document, it is a set of thresholds a coordinator crosses or doesn’t cross when they place a shift, days or weeks before anyone runs payroll.
HOURS AND REST
76 per fortnight.
End of one shift to the start of the next. Double time until released where it isn’t given.
2 hours for disability services and home care work. 3 hours for other social and community services work.
HOW THE SHIFT IS SHAPED
First start to last end, same day.
One unpaid break. $28.87 with two.
Continuous span, allowance at 4.9% of the standard rate.
RATES AND NOTICE
On the ordinary hourly rate.
Permanent. Casual 175% and 225%.
For a fortnightly roster. Seven days to change one.
SCHADS Award MA000100. Rates from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, per the Fair Work Ombudsman Pay Guide. Every threshold above is a decision made in the scheduler, and a breach created at rostering is usually discovered at payroll, by which time the shift has been worked and the options are back-pay or a repayment.
SCHADS explainers: broken shifts · sleepover shifts · penalty rates · pay levels and rates · rostering for compliance
Where the roster tells you something
Four places to look, and what each one answers.
Building the roster
Vacant shifts, availability, clashes and unfilled slots on one view. Publish a series and every future instance is checked, not just the shift you touched. Offer work to a group through the Job Board instead of ringing round.
The schedulerWhat the award says, as you roster
Forty-six SCHADS rules across seven categories run when a shift is created, updated, cancelled or deleted, and the warning appears in the shift drawer before the shift is saved. Set a maximum for a worker across five periods and tick enforce, and the shift will not save at the cap.
SCHADS award interpretationFinding the pattern, not the alert
A warning tells you about one shift. The Shift Details Report lists every award warning that fired across all of them, and Work Hours Compliance shows each worker’s cap, hours and enforcement status. It is where you find the worker who triggers a broken-shift warning every week.
Reporting and dashboardsWhat actually happened on the shift
Clock in and out with GPS verification from the worker’s phone, with shifts available offline so a dead spot in a car park doesn’t stop the shift. Mileage is captured on the same screen rather than reconstructed at month end.
Time and attendanceWhat this looks like in the scheduler
A reconstruction of the shift being built, and how a support worker sees it.
Illustration of the ShiftCare interface. These screens are reconstructions built for this page using sample data, not live captures of a customer account.
What runs on which plan
The scheduler, the Support Worker app and time and attendance are on every plan. SCHADS award warnings and Work Hour Caps are on Premium.
Award warnings are advisory. They name the clause and the change that would fix it, but a coordinator can still save a non-compliant shift. Hour caps are the only rules that block, through the enforce setting on each period. Award interpretation covers SCHADS (MA000100) only, not the Nurses Award, the Aged Care Award or the Health Professionals Award. Rate figures in warning messages are not indexed automatically, so confirm them when the award rates move.
Any questions?
What is the minimum engagement under the SCHADS Award?
Two hours for home care employees and for social and community services employees doing disability services work; three hours for social and community services employees doing other work. It applies to part-time and casual employees and to each separate period of work. It is a payment floor rather than a rostering rule. You may roster a shorter visit, but you pay the minimum. A one-hour visit where two hours are payable is billed for one hour and paid for two.
What counts as a broken shift under SCHADS?
One shift with an unpaid break inside it, not two separate shifts. The span runs 12 hours from the first start to the last end on the same day, and a broken shift allowance is payable: $21.81 with one unpaid break and $28.87 with two, from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. Two visits at 7am and 6pm are a single broken shift that has used its entire span.
How much rest is required between shifts under SCHADS?
Ten hours, under clause 25.4(a). The gap is measured between the end of one shift and the start of the next, so a late finish followed by an early start can breach it even when neither shift is long. Where the rest is not given, the award provides for double time until the worker is released.
Can rostering software stop me creating a non-compliant SCHADS shift?
Some breaches, not all. ShiftCare’s award warnings are advisory. They name the clause and the change that would fix it, but a coordinator can still save the shift. Hour limits are different: if you set a maximum for a staff member and tick enforce, the shift will not save once they are at the cap.
What does ShiftCare check when I roster a shift?
Forty-six registered award rules across seven categories: hours of work, overtime and penalties, allowances, rostering notice, breaks, shiftwork loadings and weekend work. They run on creation, update, cancellation and deletion, and each warning references the SCHADS clause it relates to.
Can I set a maximum number of hours per worker?
Yes, across five periods: daily, weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly rolling and monthly. At 80% of the cap a coordinator sees a warning and can continue. At 100%, with enforcement ticked, the shift will not save. Caps are set per staff member under Staff → List → Payroll Settings.
Does ShiftCare support awards other than SCHADS?
No. The award engine covers the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award (MA000100) only. It does not cover the Nurses Award, the Aged Care Award or the Health Professionals Award.
Already using ShiftCare? Step-by-step setup guides are in the help centre.
The other three intelligence hubs
The same roster and the same notes, read for a different question.
What a good progress note contains
The structure a note needs, and what Smart Note Coach asks for when a line is missing.
Read the hub Financial intelligenceWhat the shift costs before you save it
Cost, revenue and margin on the roster while it is still a draft, rather than three weeks later.
Read the hub Risk intelligenceThe incident that stayed in the note
Progress notes read as they arrive, with anything that looks like an incident raised for a person to confirm.
Read the hubTry it on one week of real shifts
Build a week of your actual roster and see what comes back: the warnings, the overtime, the gaps. You don’t have to move anything to find out.