A broken shift is where an employee works 2 separate shifts in a day, with an unpaid break between them.

A broken shift must be worked within a 12-hour period.

Broken shifts and casual employees

Casual employees can be rostered to work broken shifts under the Children’s Services Award.

Casual employees must be paid a minimum of 2 hours for each shift they work.

This means a casual employee working a broken shift must be paid at least 2 hours for the first shift and at least 2 hours for the second shift. They’ll receive a minimum payment of 4 hours in total for the day.

Broken shifts and part-time employees

Part-time employees must be engaged to work for at least 2 hours per shift.

This means that where an employer rosters a part-time employee to work a broken shift, the employee must be rostered for a minimum of 2 hours for the first shift and a minimum of 2 hours for the second shift.

Pay for broken shifts

An employee who works a broken shift is paid:

• for the hours they work (for a casual employee, that means at least 2 hours pay per shift)
• any penalty or shift allowances that apply
• the broken shift allowance, which is 1.819% of the standard rate per day for each day on which a broken shift is worked.

Example:

Greg is a casual employee working in a day care service. On Mondays, Greg is rostered to work:

• 7:30am to 9:30am, and
• 2:30pm to 5:30pm.

There’s an unpaid break between the two periods of work. This is a broken shift.

For this day, Greg is paid:

• for the 5 hours worked, and
• the broken shift allowance of 1.819% of the standard rate.