Attachment 3 – Shift work

Updated: 6 December 2016

1 Overview

1.1 An Employee will be described as a shift worker where they are assigned to a rostered shift working pattern that encompasses seven days per week and includes regular rostered shifts outside the period 7am to 7pm, Monday to Friday and/or Saturdays, Sundays or Public Holidays for an ongoing or fixed period.

1.2 The Electoral Commissioner may designate duties at the APS 1–6 Classification to be performed as shift work.

1.3 Where the Electoral Commissioner considers the introduction of shift work is necessary, or proposes to make changes to roster arrangements (including the cessation of shift work), affected Employees will be consulted in accordance clause 9 of this Agreement.

2 Operation of shifts

2.1 The Electoral Commissioner will give consideration to operational requirements and equality of shift allocation among Employees undertaking shift work, with shift rosters specifying the standard hours of work for each shift.

2.2 Shift workers can exchange shifts or rostered days off by mutual agreement, with the consent of the Electoral Commissioner, and the exchange does not give any Employee an entitlement to an overtime payment.

2.3 Except at the regular changeover of shifts an Employee should not be requested to work more than one shift in each 24 hours. Shift workers must not be required to work more than five consecutive hours without an unpaid meal break of at least 30 minutes.

2.4 The Electoral Commissioner may change an existing shift work roster by mutual consent with affected Employees at any time or by amendment of the roster on seven working days' notice given by the Electoral Commissioner to the affected Employees.

2.5 In the absence of consent or seven working days' notice, Employees will be paid overtime for that part of the shift that is outside the previous rostered hours of duty, until the notice period has expired. Payment of penalty rates on this basis will be continued for each changed shift until Employees have received seven days' notice of shift change.

3 Introduction of 12 hour shifts

3.1 The Electoral Commissioner may introduce shifts of up to 12 hours, subject to consultation with the affected Employees in accordance with clause 9 of this Agreement.

3.2 Employees performing 12 hour shifts should not normally perform overtime where it will fall within a period of 12 hours on either side of a normal day or night shift.

3.3 The maximum length of time a person should remain on duty is 14 hours, including the 12 hour shift and an overtime period before or after the shift, unless exceptional circumstances apply.

4 Penalty rates

4.1 Shift workers will receive the shift work penalty rates in the table below.

Rostered time of work Penalty rate
Ordinary duty performed on a shift, any part of which (but not wholly) falls between 7:00pm and 7:00 am 15%
Ordinary duty performed on a shift falling wholly within the hours 7 pm and 7am 30%
Ordinary duty performed on a Saturday 50%
Ordinary duty performed on a Sunday 100%
For that part of the shift that falls on the public holiday 150%

5 Penalty rates for working Saturdays, Sundays or public holidays

5.1 Penalty rates for shift work performed on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday will be payable for any time worked after midnight on those days, including where the shift commenced the day before.

6 Public holiday duty

6.1 If the shift worker is required to perform rostered duty on each of the days of the week, the Employee will, in respect of a public holiday which occurs on a day on which the Employee is rostered off duty, be granted a day's leave in lieu of that holiday, if practicable, within one month after the holiday. If a day of leave in lieu is not practicable, one day's pay at ordinary rates will be paid as if the employee was not a shift worker (i.e. 7.5 hours or pro rata).

7 Payments stand alone

7.1 Shift penalty payments will not be taken into account in the computation of overtime or in the calculation of any allowance based upon Salary, nor will they be paid with respect to any shift for which any other form of penalty payment is made under this Agreement or under the provisions of the FWA.

8 Overtime

8.1 Unless specified below, shift workers will be subject to the conditions for the payment of overtime in clause 36 of this Agreement.

8.2 Duty will be considered overtime only where is it directed and where:

  1. it is performed on any day which is outside the normal rostered shift hours of duty on that day; or
  2. it is performed in excess of the weekly hours of ordinary duty (37.5 hours) or an average of the weekly hours of ordinary duty (37.5) or an average of the weekly hours of ordinary duty over a cycle of shifts.

8.3 Seven day shift workers who work approved overtime on Saturday will be paid at double time. All other shift workers will be paid standard overtime rates in accordance with clause 36 of this Agreement.

8.4 An Employee who is required to work overtime for a continuous period of at least one hour that immediately follows or is before the Employee's rostered hours, and takes an unpaid meal break, during that period of overtime, of at least 30 minutes is entitled to be paid an overtime meal allowance at the rate specified in clause 40 of this Agreement.

9 Leave

9.1 Shift workers, as defined in clause 1.1 of Attachment 3, will be entitled to an additional half a day paid annual leave for each Sunday rostered, up to a maximum of five days per year. This applies only to rostered shift workers, not to Employees working overtime on Sunday.

9.2 Penalties paid during periods of annual leave will be paid at half the penalty rate for the full period of the leave. This means that full pay penalty rates will be paid for half of each rostered shift not worked due to annual leave.

9.3 Where a shift worker takes a period of leave, other than annual leave, shift penalties are not payable for the period of the absence.