Children's Services Award Shiftworker Rates and Overtime 2026/27

​

What UpSheets Calculates Automatically

• Ordinary hours from imported start and finish times
• Overtime tiers based on hours worked
• Saturday penalty and overtime rates
• Sunday penalty and overtime rates
• Public holiday penalty rates
• Minimum engagement payments
• Shift gap handling
• Automatic allowance calculations where configured

​

Pay Rates and Smart Formula Rules

​

What Requires Customer Configuration

• Variant assignment: Choose the Smart Formula variant that matches each employee’s work pattern.
• Classification selection: Assign the correct classification level for each employee.
• Public holidays: Configure public holidays for your organisation so public-holiday rules apply on the correct dates.

​

Manual Allowances

​

How to Use This Rule Set in UpSheets

1. Copy the Children’s Services Award rule set from the Award Library and select the Shiftworker variant during review.
2. Assign the correct classification and employment type to each employee using this variant.
3. Simulate representative shifts, then publish and assign the rule set to affected employees.

​

Assumptions and Limitations

​

Assumptions

• Day workers (clauses 21.2-21.3): ordinary hours Monday to Friday inside 6:00 am to 6:30 pm with an 8-hour daily ordinary cap (agreement to roster up to 10 ordinary hours under clause 21.2 is not auto-detected).
• Saturday and Sunday have no day-worker ordinary window, so Saturday uses clause 23.5(a) whole-day overtime tiers (150% first 2 hours, 200% after; each day stands alone) and Sunday uses flat 200%.
• Pre/post-spread OT on Monday to Friday uses clause 23.2 first-2 / after-2 tiers.
• Daily OT after 8 hours is scoped MON-FRI only.
• Weekly OT after 38 hours uses EVERY first-2 / after-2 at Monday to Friday OT rates.
• Public holidays are 250%.
• Clause 23.5(e) Saturday/Sunday/public holiday minimum payment is 4 hours (Saturday ME is tiered 150%/200% to match OT tiers).
• Clause 10.5(c) casual minimum engagement is 2 hours and clause 10.4(e) part-time minimum roster is 2 consecutive hours, both day-scoped on Monday to Friday at ordinary (weekend/PH minima are satisfied by the higher Sat/Sun/PH ME lines).
• Clause 22.3 10-hour break is a single GAP at a flat first-2-hours overtime multiple (150% / casual 1.4) rather than tiered relevant OT.
• Shiftworkers (clause 23.4): ordinary hours may be worked across the week.
• Early morning START_ONLY 5:00-6:00 am at 110% (casual 1.08), afternoon END_ONLY finish after 6:30 pm at 115% (casual 1.12), and rotating night END_ONLY finish after midnight by 8:00 am at 117.5% (casual 1.14), matching the award’s finish-based night definition and avoiding a midnight-5:00 am START_ONLY window that would steal early-morning starts.
• Saturday ordinary hours are 150% for all hours (clause 23.5(b)); daily overtime after 8 hours is scoped MON-SAT at 150%/200% so Sunday stays on the flat 200% day rate.
• Sunday 200%, public holiday 250%, with 4-hour Sat/Sun/PH minima at the applicable day multiple.
• Permanent night shiftworkers use the same END_ONLY night structure with night loading 130% (casual 1.24) and without early-morning/afternoon loadings.
• Casual MULTIPLE lines are scoped to CASUAL and use (award % of minimum) / 1.25, including shift loadings as (100 + shift% + 25) / 125.
• FULL_TIME/PART_TIME multiples remain award percentages of the unloaded minimum.
• Modelling follows Fair Work award text and MAPD (single flat 10-hour GAP, tiered day-worker Saturday ME, delayed meal break excluded).

​

Not Supported by This Rule Set

• Agreement to reduce the 10 hour break to 8 hours
• Agreement to roster up to 10 ordinary hours in a day
• Averaging ordinary hours over two or four week cycles
• Broken shift 12-hour spread limit automation
• Day Worker versus Shiftworker versus Permanent Night variant assignment
• Emergency overtime paid at ordinary rates (up to one hour per week)
• Junior, apprentice, and supported wage classifications
• Non-contact time entitlements
• Part-time agreed hours / short-notice change overtime under clause 10.4
• Pre-March 2026 transitional CSE classification translation rows
• Public holiday substitution / part-day public holiday continuity rules
• Superseded Support Worker pay-rate rows sharing current classification IDs
• Time off instead of payment for overtime
• Unpaid meal break timing and paid rest breaks

​

Official sources

• Award text: Fair Work Commission - MA000120
• Pay rates and allowances: Fair Work pay guides

​

Other Children’s Services Award Variants

• Day Worker
• Permanent Night Shiftworker