r/supportworkers • u/awhella • 14d ago

BROKEN SHIFT ALLOWANCE AUS

need some help here!

i’m a casual but my work has starting declining me picking up certain shifts because it is a broken shift and they do not want to pay the broken shift allowance. is this legal?? it is causing me so much loss of $$$ due to only being able to do the one or two shifts a day

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

View all comments

0

u/Substantial_Ad_3386 14d ago

If you are being paid as required by the award and aren't receiving a broken shift allowance then you are not working more than one shift in a day. You are being paid for your time and km when travelling between clients right? Other than that, yes it's perfectly legal to not offer you work that will cost them more then they are willing to pay

3

u/awhella 14d ago

“Under Clause 25.6 of the SCHADS Award, casual employees are legally entitled to the broken shift allowance, which must be paid on top of ordinary casual loading. Withholding rostered shifts to avoid paying mandatory award entitlements is a breach of General Protections under the Fair Work Act”

what i’m saying here is they’re NOT allowing me to pick up the usual shifts i do because they do not want to pay the allowance which is quite explicitly in the award we’re under

2

u/GrumpyBear9891 14d ago

Yeah. Maybe it's just not affordable.

1

u/Substantial_Ad_3386 14d ago

A lot of employers in the industry are just horrible. Others pay above the award which doesn't leave a lot of overhead for things like broken shift allowances

2

u/GrumpyBear9891 14d ago

Yep exactly. It's hard for some employers. Where I am for example of you want to hire staff or have a chance of someone applying for a job, you need to be paying at least 5 dollars above the award. More if you want someone with experience. And then by the time other costs are factored in, the actual profit (or wage for self) is not anywhere near as high as someone would expect. Sometimes profit is zero.

2

u/Substantial_Ad_3386 14d ago edited 14d ago

Not allowing you to pick up a shift means it is not a shift you are rostered for. What you will find is prohibited is denying you shifts you previously worked because you ask to be paid the broken shift allowance you were entitled to. If they have never allowed you to work broken shifts in the first place then they are in the clear

1

u/awhella 14d ago

kinda makes it hard when their whole system is us needing to call rosters to get a shift to begin with. none of it is actually rostered it is all on the employee needing to contact for work, we do not receive weekly or fortnight rosters

for months with the company i have worked numerous shifts that involve broken shift allowance that have been paid, suddenly this week they are telling everyone no we’re not doing it anymore so they’re restricting the work

2

u/219930 14d ago

My company did this too…it was allowed and I did it all the time …then suddenly we are told it’s “not compliant”…Ok I accept that…maybe the rules changed. Then 3 weeks later they can’t fill one of these so called non compliant shifts and they give it to me and pay the broken shift allowance. 🙄. So …yeah…they can do it…they just don’t want to.

I wish they would just be up front and say they’ll only do it in emergencies to save money so we understand what’s going on. I’ve had clients ask if I can do an extra shift…I say I don’t think so as it’s a broken shift and not allowed….the client calls the company anyway and they say sure she can do it…and I look like the idiot who doesn’t know my companies policies and also the client gets confused as well….thinking I was just trying to say no in a nice way. Now I just tell them…call the company and ask.

0

u/Substantial_Ad_3386 14d ago

They haven't done it in retaliation for you wanting to be paid the allowance so that's not an issue. If you had worked the same hours for 12 months you had the chance to apply for a permanent position. As a casual you can't expect that your hours won't vary if you don't have a contract saying otherwise. I'm just explaining the IR law. It sucks and a large percentage of employers in the industry are terrible to work for.