From the first full pay period on or after 1 June 2026, important changes will apply to the way sleepover shifts are handled under the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 (SCHADS Award).
The changes follow a Fair Work Commission decision relating to sleepover shift arrangements and will affect how work performed before and after a sleepover is assessed for pay purposes.
For providers operating in the community, home care and disability sectors, this is a significant payroll and rostering update that may impact payroll configuration, timesheet processes and award interpretation within systems such as Employment Hero Payroll.
At Lucent Advisory, we are working with our clients to help ensure payroll systems remain aligned with the updated SCHADS Award requirements while reducing the administrative burden on internal teams.
What is changing?
Under the updated SCHADS Award interpretation, work performed immediately before and after a sleepover must now be assessed separately for shift penalty purposes.
Previously, these shifts may have been treated as a single continuous block when calculating penalties. From 1 June 2026, the pre-sleepover and post-sleepover portions must instead be recorded and assessed independently, meaning different penalty rates may apply to each portion of the shift.
To support these changes, Employment Hero has introduced new work types, shift conditions and payroll rules, including:
- Pre-sleepover
- Post-sleepover
- 12 hour shift by agreement
- 10 hour shift arrangement tags for eligible full-time employees
Accurate timesheet entry and correct shift tagging will now be essential to ensure the correct penalties, overtime and allowances are applied.
What Lucent will action on your behalf
Lucent will support clients by applying the relevant SCHADS Award update within KeyPay across your account.
We will also:
- set up the new pre-sleepover, post-sleepover and 12 hour shift by agreement work types and shift conditions
- configure relevant settings so sleepover-related shifts can be tagged correctly and penalties calculate as intended
- apply the 10 hour shift arrangement tag for applicable full-time employees on permanent 10-hour arrangements
- review customised award rules and manually update any rules impacted by the SCHADS changes
- review rostering scenarios involving consecutive sleepover shifts with less than a 10-hour gap and apply the “not a broken shift” condition where appropriate to avoid incorrect broken shift allowances being triggered
It is important to note that customised award rules do not automatically update when award updates are applied in Employment Hero Payroll. These configurations require individual review and manual adjustment where impacted.
What we need from you
To help us complete these updates accurately and efficiently, please:
- confirm whether any employees are on permanent 10-hour shift arrangements
- advise us if you have customised SCHADS pay rules or payroll configurations in place
- ensure your team is recording sleepover timesheets correctly, with hours worked before and after the sleepover entered separately
These steps will help ensure the appropriate work types, penalties, overtime and allowances are applied correctly under the updated award interpretation.
Why this matters
While these changes are technical in nature, they have practical payroll and compliance implications for SCHADS Award employers.
Incorrect timesheet entry, tagging or payroll configuration could result in underpayments, overpayments or incorrect allowances being applied.
With the commencement date approaching, it is important that providers review their payroll systems, rostering processes and timesheet practices now to ensure they are prepared.
Lucent Advisory will continue working closely with clients to implement the required updates and review impacted payroll configurations. Our focus is to make the transition as smooth as possible while helping organisations remain compliant with the updated SCHADS Award requirements.
If your organisation has employees performing sleepover shifts, uses customised SCHADS pay rules, or would like support reviewing how these changes apply to your payroll setup, please contact your dedicated payroll officer at Lucent Advisory.
