All employees covered by the Meat Award can work shifts. The shiftworker rates are the same for all employees.

An employee not working a shift may be entitled to penalty rates. Please see Penalty rates in the Meat Award for more information.

When are shiftwork rates paid?

An employee gets paid shiftwork rates on their ordinary hours when they work:

• afternoon shifts starting after 2pm and ending on or before midnight
• night shifts finishing between midnight and 9am
• fixed night shifts worked between midnight and 9am
• non-successive shifts of less than 5 afternoon or night shifts rostered in a row.

Shiftworkers get paid shiftwork rates for work on any day of the week.

What are the shiftwork rates?

Shiftwork rates are calculated on the minimum hourly rate for ordinary hours worked. Shiftworkers are paid:

• 115% for afternoon shifts
• 125% for night shifts
• 130% for fixed night shifts
• 150% of the minimum hourly rate for the first 3 hours, and 200% after this for non-successive shifts.

Non-successive shifts

Non-successive shifts are afternoon or night shifts that the employer runs for less than 5 shifts in a row. For example, where an employer who doesn’t usually run a night shift rosters an occasional night shift to catch up on work.

Casual shiftworkers

Casual shiftworkers receive the relevant shiftwork rate plus their casual loading for working shifts every day of the week.

Example

Elizabeth is employed Tuesday to Friday as a casual night shift butcher under the retail stream of the Meat Award.

As a night shiftworker, Elizabeth gets paid 125% of the minimum hourly rate.

Because Elizabeth is a casual, she also gets paid the 25% casual loading on top of this.

What do shiftworkers get paid on a public holiday?

Shiftworkers get the applicable public holiday penalty rate for working on a public holiday instead of the applicable shiftwork rates.

Casual shiftworkers don’t get the casual loading on the applicable public holiday penalty rate.