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Rostering
Last updated October 2019
This chapter explains your pay obligations for rostered hours, and the rostering requirements under modern awards and enterprise agreements. Learn more about our rostering software here.
What are your rostering obligations?
If you require a roster in your workplace, there are several obligations with which you must comply.
Definition: Roster
A roster is a calendar of days and/or times that identifies the shifts you require employees to work.
A roster is a calendar of days and/or times that identifies the shifts you require employees to work.
When you roster employees, you will need to ensure that you comply with:
- pay obligations;
- modern award requirements for award-covered employees; and
- enterprise agreement requirements for agreement-covered employees.
Pay obligations for rostered hours
If you require an employee to perform work over a particular period by rostering them to work, you have an obligation to pay the employee for the hours they work.
Usually the working hours shown in a roster are ordinary hours of work.
Definition: Ordinary Hours
An employee’s ordinary hours of work are the hours they work each week, other than overtime hours.
An employee’s ordinary hours of work are the hours they work each week, other than overtime hours.
Ordinary hours of work will be paid at an employee’s agreed wage.
Definition: Agreed Wage
An agreed wage is the rate of pay that you have agreed to pay an employee in return for their services. The agreed wage becomes a term of the employment contract between you and the employee.
An agreed wage is the rate of pay that you have agreed to pay an employee in return for their services. The agreed wage becomes a term of the employment contract between you and the employee.
Important: The agreed wage must be no less than the statutory minimum wage.
Remember: If you require an employee to work hours in excess of their rostered hours, you may be required to pay the employee overtime entitlements.
Example
The Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award provides that where an employee works on a shift other than a rostered shift, the employee must, if employed on continuous work, be paid at the rate of double time. If they are employed on other shift work, they must be paid at the rate of time and a half for the first 3 hours and double time thereafter. This will not be the case when the time is worked by arrangement between the employees themselves, for the purposes of effecting the customary rotation of shifts. This will also not be the case on a shift to which the employee is transferred on short notice, as an alternative to standing the employee off, in circumstances that would entitle the employer to deduct payment in accordance with a stand down.
The Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award provides that where an employee works on a shift other than a rostered shift, the employee must, if employed on continuous work, be paid at the rate of double time. If they are employed on other shift work, they must be paid at the rate of time and a half for the first 3 hours and double time thereafter. This will not be the case when the time is worked by arrangement between the employees themselves, for the purposes of effecting the customary rotation of shifts. This will also not be the case on a shift to which the employee is transferred on short notice, as an alternative to standing the employee off, in circumstances that would entitle the employer to deduct payment in accordance with a stand down.
Tip: You can roster an employee to work hours that attract overtime or penalty rates, e.g. on a public holiday.
Requirements for rostering under the modern awards
If your employees are covered by a modern award, you will need to comply with any rostering requirements in that award.
The following tables show examples of rostering requirements in some modern awards:
| General Retail Industry Award | |
|---|---|
| Maximum roster cycle | 4 weeks. |
| Minimum daily hours for part-time employees | 3 consecutive hours. |
| Minimum daily hours for casual employees | 3 hours, which can be reduced to 1.5 if all the following circumstances apply: – the employee is a full-time secondary school student; – the employee is engaged to work between the hours of 3pm and 6:30pm on a day they are required to attend school; – the employee agrees to work, and a parent or guardian of the employee agrees to allow the employee to work, a shorter period than 3 hours; and – employment for a longer period than the period of the engagement is not possible either because of your operational requirements or the unavailability of the employee. |
| Maximum ordinary hours in a day for full-time employees | 9 hours on any day, provided that for one day per week the employee can be rostered for 11 hours. |
| Your right to change a rostered day off (RDO) | You may, by agreement with an employee, substitute an alternative day for the day that the employee is to be rostered off. In the case of an emergency (such as a breakdown in machinery, or a failure or shortage of electrical power) you may, with the agreement of the majority of the employees, substitute the day or half day RDO for another day or half day. |
| Accumulation of RDOs | You may, by agreement with an employee, allow RDOs to accumulate up to a maximum of 5 days in any one year. Such accumulated periods may be taken at times mutually convenient to you and the employee. |
| Restaurant Industry Award | |
|---|---|
| Maximum roster cycle | 4 weeks for casual employees. |
| Minimum daily hours for part-time employees | 3 hours. |
| Minimum daily hours for casual employees | 2 hours. |
| Maximum ordinary hours in a day for full-time employees | 11.5 hours, exclusive of meal break intervals. However, the arrangement of ordinary hours must meet the following conditions: – an employee cannot be rostered to work for more than 10 hours per day on more than 3 consecutive days without a break of at least 48 hours; – no more than 8 days of more than 10 hours may be worked in a 4-week period; and – an employee underthe age of 18 must not be required to work more than 10 hours in a shift. |
| Notice of RDOs | Where practicable, 2 weeks, provided that the days off may be changed by mutual consent or through sickness or other cause over which you have no control. |
| Fast Food Industry Award | |
|---|---|
| Minimum daily hours for part-time employees | 3 consecutive hours. |
| Minimum daily hours for casual employees | 3 hours. |
| Maximum ordinary hours in a day for full-time employees | 11 hours. |
| Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award | |
|---|---|
| Maximum roster cycle | 3 months. |
| Minimum daily hours for part-time employees | 4 consecutive hours, which can be reduced to 3 by agreement if employee requests to meet their personal circumstances. You must record such agreement on the employee’s time and wages record. |
| Minimum daily hours for casual employees | 4 hours, which can be reduced to 3 by agreement if employee requests to meet their personal circumstances. |
| Notice of RDOs | 4 weeks. However, the employer may provide a lesser notice period by agreement with the majority of the employees. |
| Clerks–Private Sector Award | |
|---|---|
| Minimum daily hours for part-time employees | 3 consecutive hours. |
| Minimum daily hours for casual employees | 3 hours. |
| Maximum ordinary hours in a day for full-time employees | 10 hours. |
| Notice of RDOs | 4 weeks. |
| Your right to change an RDO | You may substitute the day an employee is to take off for another day in case of a break down in machinery, or a failure or shortage of electric power, or to meet the requirements of the business in the event of rush orders or some other emergency situation. You may agree with an individual employee to substitute the day the employee is to take off for another day. |
When can you change a regular roster under modern awards?
To change a regular roster, all modern awards require you to:
- inform affected employees about the nature of the change and when it is to begin;
- invite the employees to give their views about the impact of the proposed change on them (including any impact on their family or caring responsibilities); and
- consider the employees’ views before making a final decision.
Important: This does not apply to an employee whose working hours are irregular, sporadic or unpredictable.
The following tables show examples of award rules around rostering.
| General Retail Industry Award | |
|---|---|
| Your rights to change roster | To change a ‘permanent roster’, you must provide the proposed roster to employees affected, in writing, giving 7 days’ notice. If an employee disagrees with a proposed permanent roster change, the notice requirement extends to 14 days and you must initiate discussions with the employee in accordance with the dispute resolution provisions of the Award. If you need to change an employee’s roster for a given day due to unexpected operational requirements, you may do so by mutual agreement with the employee prior to the employee arriving for work. If you need to change an employee’s roster for a once-only event caused by particular circumstances not constituting an emergency, you must give ‘appropriate notice’. The roster reverts to the previous pattern in the following week, and the extra work done by the employee because of the change of roster will be paid at the overtime rate. |
| Special rules for changing part-timer rosters | You may change a part-time employee’s roster (but not their hours of work) by providing, in writing, 7 days’ notice or, in the case of an emergency, 48 hours’ notice. The rostered hours of part-time employees may be altered at any time by mutual agreement. |
| Restaurant Industry Award | |
|---|---|
| Your rights to change roster | You may change an employee’s roster at any time, by mutual consent or by providing 7 days’ notice of the alteration. |
| Special rules for changing part-timer rosters | You may roster part-time employees to work additional hours in excess of their guaranteed hours, provided that the employee: – is not rostered for work for any hours outside the employee’s availability; – is not rostered for work in excess of 11.5 or less than 3 hours in a day; and – has at least 2 days off each week. |
| Employee’s right to change roster | A part-time employee who has, over a period of at least 12 months, regularly worked a number of ordinary hours that exceed the guaranteed hours, may request, in writing, that you increase their guaranteed hours. If you agree to the request, you must record in writing the new agreement concerning guaranteed hours. You may refuse the request on reasonable business grounds, in which case you must provide reasons to the employee, in writing. Where there has been a genuine and ongoing change in a part-time employee’s personal circumstances, the employee may alter the days and hours oftheir availability ifthey give you 14 days’ written notice. If you cannot reasonably accommodate the requested change within the guaranteed hours, those guaranteed hours will no longer apply. You will need to agree with the employee (in writing) on new guaranteed hours. |
| Fast Food Industry Award | |
|---|---|
| Special rules for changing part-timer rosters | You may agree with an employee to vary a particular rostered shift, provided that: – any agreement to vary the regular pattern of work for a particular rostered shift is recorded at or by the end of the affected shift; – you keep a copy of the agreed variation in writing; and – you provide a copy of the agreed variation to the employee if requested to do so. If you don’t meet these requirements, the employee is entitled to be paid at overtime rates for any hours worked in excess of their regular pattern of work. |
Caution: If you change an employee’s roster arrangements because they exercise their workplace rights, you will contravene the general protections under the FW Act.
Case Law: Arnett-Somerville v Monash Health (2016)
In Arnett-Somerville v Monash Health (2016), a part-time nurse and union delegate alleged her hospital employer took adverse action against her by rostering her on excessive weekend shifts because she lodged a workplace dispute.
The Court rejected claims the nurse was rostered to work excessively over weekends, noting her pattern of weekend work in the year of the alleged adverse action was not more adverse than her corresponding pattern for the previous year.
Requirements for rostering under enterprise agreements
If your employees are covered by an enterprise agreement, you will need to comply with any rostering requirements in that agreement.
Important: Rostering requirements in the enterprise agreement must pass the better off overall test (BOOT). This requires that an employee would be better off under the agreement than they would be under the relevant modern award.
When you seek approval for an agreement containing loaded rates in whole or partial substitution for award penalty rates, you will need to produce the rosters of the employees covered by the agreement.
The Fair Work Commission (FWC) may not assume that prospective employees will also work these rosters during the term of the agreement if:
- your business is small and/or still at the development stage; or
- the agreement covers a wider range of classifications, work locations and/or roster patterns that are not in existence.
If the agreement permits you to require the employees covered by the agreement to work rosters that are different to those produced to the FWC, those will be relevant to the BOOT.
Example
If the agreement permits you to require employees to work ordinary hours on weekends, those provisions won’t be ignored for BOOT purposes simply because you don’t currently require this. It will only be ignored if you produce evidence that shows a roster pattern permitted by an enterprise agreement is not practicable or is unlikely to be worked.
If the agreement permits you to require employees to work ordinary hours on weekends, those provisions won’t be ignored for BOOT purposes simply because you don’t currently require this. It will only be ignored if you produce evidence that shows a roster pattern permitted by an enterprise agreement is not practicable or is unlikely to be worked.
Important: There may be some exceptions to this rule.
Case Law: Aldi Foods (2019)
In Aldi Foods (2019), a supermarket chain did not provide typical rosters when seeking approval of its enterprise agreement using loaded rates. This was because the employer asserted its rostering system used a ‘needs-based approach’ that considered the needs of:
- the store;
- each individual employee; and
- the workforce at that store.
This rostering approach was to ensure that fair and equitable working arrangements were set in place to accommodate the needs of all interested parties. This often resulted in an employee’s hours being different from week to week.
The FWC did not consider this to be a problem, given that no roster would result in the loaded rates in the agreement being less than the award rates. Therefore, the agreement passed the BOOT.