SCHADS Award Rostering in 2026: What the New Sleepover Rules Mean for Your Roster
On 1 June 2026, the rules for rostering sleepover shifts under the SCHADS Award changed for good.
If your templates still treat a sleepover as two separate engagements instead of one continuous shift, every roster you built since that date could be non-compliant.
Sleepover shifts are central to overnight support, and getting the pay calculation wrong exposes you to back-pay claims and Fair Work Ombudsman scrutiny.
This guide outlines what has actually changed and how SCHADS award rostering software can apply the new rules automatically instead of leaving it to manual recalculation.
Key takeaways:
- Sleepovers are now a single continuous shift for pay purposes.
- Ordinary hours around a sleepover can extend from 10 to 12, by written agreement, capped at 8 hours either side.
- Work before and after the sleepover has its loading calculated separately, by time of day, not automatically doubled up.
- The changes apply from the first full pay period on or after 1 June 2026.
- Manual rostering is a leading cause of SCHADS underpayment and purpose-built software reduces that risk.
What Is the SCHADS Award and Who Does It Cover?
The Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award (SCHADS Award, MA000100) covers workers employed in disability services, home care, community services, crisis accommodation and social welfare services across Australia.
Around 20 pay conditions interact under the SCHADS Award, including shift loadings, broken shift allowances, sleepovers and minimum engagement rules.
That's why rostering needs more than a generic scheduling template for this award, and why correct shift classification is crucial from the beginning. See our guide to SCHADS Award payroll interpretation to learn more about the award's broader structure.
If you're an aged care provider rather than a disability or home care service, most residential aged care workers fall under the Aged Care Award instead of SCHADS. See our guide to aged care rostering software for information about changes to the Aged Care Act 2024.
What Changed in June 2026: The New Sleepover Determination
The Fair Work Commission's June 2026 determination changed three things about how sleepover shifts are paid:
- Sleepovers are now one continuous engagement, not two shifts either side of the sleep.
- Ordinary hours around a sleepover can extend to 12, only by written agreement, capped at 8 hours either side.
- Work before and after the sleepover now has its loading calculated separately, by time of day.
The new rules have applied from the first full pay period on or after 1 June 2026, per the Fair Work Ombudsman. If your first full pay period after that date began on 2 June, your obligation started then.
No changes were made to standard hourly rates, weekend penalties and the broken shift allowance. ABLA's summary and Moores' analysis independently confirm the same scope.
Old Rules vs New Rules
| Condition | Before June 2026 | After June 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Sleepover treatment | Separate engagements either side of the sleep period | One continuous engagement for pay purposes |
| Ordinary hours around sleepover | Capped at 10 hours | Extendable to 12, by written agreement, capped at 8 either side |
| Loading on surrounding work | Higher loading could apply across the whole span | Each portion's loading calculated separately, by time of day |
| Minimum engagement | Assessed per engagement | Assessed across the whole single shift |
What "Sleepover as a Single Shift" Means in Practice
Treating a sleepover as a single engagement means the pre-sleepover work, the sleep period and the post-sleepover work are all assessed together for minimum engagement and consecutive-shift purposes. But each work portion's loading is still calculated on its own.
This treatment, and the minimum engagement rules around it, are set out on the Fair Work Ombudsman's hours of work in the SCHADS Award page.
A Worked Example
Imagine a support worker provides active care from 6pm to 10pm, sleeps from 10pm to 6am, then resumes active care duties from 6am to 8am. Under the new rules, the entire 6pm-to-8am block counts as one continuous shift for pay purposes.
The two work portions are still paid on their own terms and the 6pm-to-10pm portion may attract the existing afternoon or night loading, depending on the hours it falls.
The 6am-to-8am portion would typically attract no loading, because it falls outside those hours. Loadings are not automatically added to both ends.
A provider can't split a sleepover into smaller engagements to reduce minimum payment obligations. Rostering software needs to track the entire block, not each portion in isolation.
This kind of round-the-clock rostering is especially common in Supported Independent Living (SIL) services, which often run overnight sleepover shifts as core business. It's a topic we cover in more depth in our guide to SIL rostering.
Broken Shifts, Loadings and Allowances Under the New Rules
Under the revised SCHADS Award, the work time immediately before and after a sleepover each have their shift loading (the existing afternoon or night loading) calculated on their own timing. The higher of the two no longer applies across the entire span.
Afternoon (12.5%) and night (15%) shift loading still apply exactly as before. What has changed is which portion of a sleepover shift qualifies. Employment Hero's analysis confirms this is a timing-based calculation, not a new loading rate.
The broken shift allowance is a separate, unrelated provision. It's triggered by a qualifying unpaid break, not by a sleepover. These rates are indexed each year on 1 July under the Fair Work Commission's annual wage review. The current rates are $21.81 (standard) and $28.87 (higher rate).
Loadings and Allowances Summary
| Shift component | Loading/allowance type | Rate | Calculation basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-sleepover work | Afternoon or night shift loading (existing) | 12.5% or 15% | Based on time of day the work falls |
| Post-sleepover work | Afternoon or night shift loading (existing) | 12.5%, 15%, or none | Based on time of day the work falls |
| Sleepover period | Sleepover allowance | See our SCHADS payroll interpretation guide | Per sleepover |
| Broken shift (separate provision) | Broken shift allowance | $21.81 (standard) $28.87 (higher), effective 1 July 2026 | Per shift with a qualifying unpaid break |
SCHADS Award Rostering Software: How It Handles the Complexity
SCHADS-compliant rostering software automates the identification, classification and pay calculation for every shift type in the award, including sleepovers, broken shifts and overnight work.
Pay conditions are applied correctly at the point of shift creation, not corrected manually at payroll.
Manual rostering is the leading cause of SCHADS underpayment, not deliberate wrongdoing. A manager who is building shifts in a spreadsheet has to remember every threshold and allowance trigger, every week. One missed rule repeats on every future roster.
See our comparison of employee scheduling software vs. manual rostering for the broader case against manual scheduling.
A compliant system needs to do five things well:
- Classify shift types automatically, including sleepover, overnight and broken shift.
- Apply the correct loading to each sleepover portion, based on time of day.
- Flag when the ordinary hours around a sleepover approach the 12-hour threshold.
- Calculate broken shift allowances automatically.
- Produce an audit trail mapping each portion to the Award provision it was paid under.
Generic disability rostering software usually needs manual configuration for SCHADS-specific rules, like the sleepover loading split. Any error in that setup repeats on every shift built from the template. That's the gap SCHADS award rostering software closes: it applies award logic natively.
Explore our payroll rules engine for SCHADS and Modern Awards.
Common SCHADS Rostering Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
The most common SCHADS Award rostering mistakes arise from misclassifying shift types, using generic pay rules instead of award-specific conditions and failing to update rostering templates when award determinations change.
Mistakes include:
- Treating the sleepover as two separate engagements, a pre-2026 practice that is now non-compliant.
- Not updating shift templates, so rosters still use the old 10-hour threshold.
- Applying one flat loading across the whole sleepover instead of calculating each portion separately.
- Extending ordinary hours to 12 without the required written agreement in place.
- Not keeping an audit trail mapping each shift portion to the award provision it was paid under.
These mistakes undermine SCHADS award compliance and raise the risk of an underpayment finding, even without any intention to underpay.
See the hidden cost of rostering errors for what that risk looks like in practice, beyond the back-pay figure itself.
The Fair Work Ombudsman recovered $473 million for almost 160,000 underpaid workers in 2023-24. That figure covers all sectors, not just SCHADS, but misclassification is a recurring enforcement theme across the care sector.
Purpose-built disability rostering software reduces this risk by applying award logic automatically.
How Simplifi Supports SCHADS Compliance
Simplifi's payroll rules engine applies SCHADS Award conditions at the point of rostering. It classifies shift types, applies the correct loadings and generates an audit-ready record, so providers don't have to rely on manual checks or post-rostering corrections.
For the latest changes specifically, Simplifi:
- Classifies sleepover shifts automatically and applies the correct loading to each work portion by time of day.
- Flags shifts approaching the 12-hour extended threshold, so a written agreement can be put in place first.
- Calculates broken shift allowances separately from sleepover loadings, so the two provisions are never confused.
- Generates an audit trail mapping each shift portion to the Award provision it was paid under.
Simplifi's payroll rules engine is reviewed and updated whenever the Fair Work Commission issues a new determination, so providers aren't left to manually rebuild every shift template when an award changes.
The Fair Work Ombudsman expects providers to show how a shift was classified and paid, not just that it was paid. Simplifi's compliance module records the classification, loading and Award provision behind each shift, in a form that can be produced on request.
Payroll data then flows out without double-entry via Simplifi's payroll integration, connecting to KeyPay, MYOB, Xero, Employment Hero Payroll, ADP and Definitiv.
Simplifi is disability rostering software built around award interpretation, not retrofitted onto a generic scheduler. Book a demonstration to see how it handles this determination and the rest of the award's complexity.
Frequently Asked Questions
When do the new SCHADS Award sleepover rules take effect?
These rules have applied from the first full pay period on or after 1 June 2026. If you've been running payroll since that date without applying them, review those pay runs for underpayment risk.
What is the 12-hour ordinary hours threshold under the SCHADS Award?
The threshold refers to the maximum ordinary hours that can surround a sleepover, extended from 10 to 12 by written agreement and capped at 8 hours either side.
Do the new sleepover rules apply to all SCHADS Award employees?
They apply to SCHADS classifications rostered for sleepover shifts, most commonly disability support and home care workers. They don't extend SCHADS to roles it never covered, such as nurses or residential aged care workers.
How is the pre-sleepover loading different from the post-sleepover loading?
They are not two loadings that both automatically apply. Each portion's loading is calculated independently by time of day, using the existing afternoon and night shift rules, so one portion may attract a loading while the other attracts none.
Does the broken shift allowance still apply to sleepover shifts?
No. A broken shift and a sleepover shift are separate SCHADS provisions. The allowance is triggered by a qualifying unpaid break, while the sleepover loading structure applies to sleepover shifts. A shift is assessed under one provision or the other, not both.
What records do I need to keep for sleepover shifts under SCHADS?
Keep records showing how each shift was classified, which loading was applied to each portion, and the written agreement if hours were extended to 12. The Fair Work Ombudsman expects records that show how a shift was paid, not just that it was.
Can rostering software automatically apply the new SCHADS sleepover loadings?
Yes, if the software has native SCHADS-specific logic rather than manual configuration. It should classify the shift, apply each portion's loading by time of day and flag the 12-hour threshold automatically.
What happens if I have been rostering sleepovers incorrectly before June 2026?
You may have back-pay liability for the affected period, even if the error predates this determination. The Fair Work Ombudsman has a voluntary disclosure process for correcting underpayments, and a good first step is a compliance audit of recent sleepover shifts.
Make Sure You Can Follow the New Rules
The 2026 SCHADS award sleepover rules have changed how sleepover shifts are treated, not how much staff are paid for ordinary work outside those shifts.
Sleepovers are one continuous engagement, the surrounding hours can extend from 10 to 12 by written agreement and each portion's loading is calculated on its own timing.
Manual rostering was never built to track this level of award detail reliably. Purpose-built software applies these rules at the point of rostering instead.
Book a demonstration to see how Simplifi keeps sleepover shifts, broken shifts and the rest of the SCHADS Award compliant by default.
