How to roster for late-night trading

Written by Roster Flow. Published 15 August 2026.

Thursday late nights, the weeks before Christmas, a street festival or a late session at the cinema next door: most small businesses trade late at least some of the year. The evening looks like a longer version of the day on the roster, but it rarely behaves like one. Customers arrive in a different pattern, the hours cost more and whoever closes still has to be back at a sensible time the next day.

The award rules below are from the General Retail Industry Award 2020, with notes from the Restaurant Industry Award 2020 and the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020, all as consolidated to 1 July 2026. Evening rules differ more between awards than most, so confirm yours with the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Find my award tool.

Decide whether the late hours are worth opening

A late night is worth opening when the extra gross profit it brings in covers the extra wages and running costs. Before you commit to a season of them, test a few.

• Trial it for several weeks, not one night, so a wet evening or a local event does not decide it.
• Record sales and customer counts by hour from the time the day would normally close.
• Cost the evening hours at their own rates, using the penalty rates below rather than the daytime average.
• Include the close. Cashing up, cleaning and locking up after the doors shut are paid hours too.

If the last hour barely trades, closing it earlier can save more than trimming a person from the busy part of the evening. Forecasting staffing from weekly sales shows how to turn hourly sales into people on shift.

Check the span of ordinary hours

Most awards set a span of hours: the times of day when ordinary hours can be worked. Work outside it is usually paid differently, so it is the first thing to check before rostering a late close. Under the General Retail Industry Award, the span is set by clause 15.1 and Table 2.

Clause 15.2(c) extends ordinary hours until 11:00 pm on all days of the week if the retailer’s trading hours extend beyond 9:00 pm on a Monday to Friday or 6:00 pm on a Saturday or Sunday. Hours worked outside the span that applies are paid as overtime for full-time, part-time and casual employees, other than shiftwork (Table 10 in clause 21.2).

The practical test is the close, not the trading hours. If the doors shut at the end of the span and the pack down runs past it, those minutes can be overtime. Put the real finish time on the roster and check it against the span before you publish.

Evening and late-night penalty rates

Evening hours often cost more than the same hours in the day. Under the General Retail Industry Award, ordinary hours are paid at these percentages of the minimum hourly rate (Table 12 in clause 22.1):

Hospitality awards work differently. Under the Restaurant Industry Award, ordinary hours from 10:00 pm to midnight and from midnight to 6:00 am on Monday to Friday attract an additional amount per hour or part of an hour on top of the usual percentage, with a higher amount after midnight (Table 8 in clause 24.2). The amounts change each year, so take them from the Restaurant Industry Award pay rates page. For retail, current rates are on the General Retail Industry Award pay rates page, and pubs and hotels should check the Hospitality Industry (General) Award pay rates.

Night fill and shiftwork

Some businesses use the late night to restock, with a crew working after the doors close. Under the General Retail Industry Award, the shiftwork part of the award applies only to people specifically employed to do shiftwork (clause 23.1). For them, shiftwork means a shift starting at or after 6:00 pm on one day and before 5:00 am the next, and it does not include a shift that starts and finishes on the same day within the span of ordinary hours (clauses 24.1 and 24.3).

The award’s break table also notes that the rest and meal breaks of shiftworkers are paid. A night fill crew is costed differently from an evening sales crew, so decide which one you are rostering before you cost it.

Shape the evening shifts

Stretching the day crew to cover the evening is the most expensive way to roster a late night and the most tiring. Split the day instead.

• Run a day crew and an evening crew, with the evening crew starting in time to cover the after work rush.
• Overlap the two by a short handover, so the evening lead knows what is low, what is broken and who is on. Shift handover notes covers what to pass on.
• Put the close on the roster as work, with its own finish time. Opening and closing duties shows how to list and time it.
• Place breaks by the award’s table. Under the Retail award, a shift of 4 to 5 hours carries one 10 minute paid rest break, and a shift of more than 5 but less than 7 hours adds an unpaid meal break of 30 to 60 minutes (clause 16.2, Table 3). A break cannot be required in the first or last hour of work, and nobody can be required to work more than 5 hours without a meal break (clause 16.5).
• Rotate the late close, so the same people are not always the ones finishing last.

Leave enough time before the next start

The late close is where rosters most often break the rest rules, because the next morning was built separately. Under the General Retail Industry Award, an employee must have at least 12 hours between finishing work one day and starting work the next (clause 16.6(a)). If they start again without 12 hours off, they are paid 200% of their minimum hourly rate for each hour worked until they have had 12 consecutive hours off (clause 16.6(b)). An employer and an employee, or a group of employees, can agree to a 10 hour minimum instead (clause 16.6(d)).

Other awards set their own gap. Under the Hospitality Industry (General) Award, full-time and part-time employees must have at least 10 hours between finishing ordinary hours on one day and starting on the next, or 8 hours at a changeover of rosters (clause 15.5(e)). Whatever the award, check every late closer’s next shift before you publish.

A worked example: a Thursday late night in December

A gift shop covered by the General Retail Industry Award normally trades from 9:00 to 17:30 on weekdays. In December it stays open until 20:30 on Thursdays, and the close finishes at 21:00, inside the Monday to Friday span. This is its Thursday roster.

The day and evening crews overlap from 15:00 to 17:00, which covers the handover and the start of the after work trade. Six hours fall after 6:00 pm: 3 for the part-time employee at 125% and 3 for the casual at 150%. If both are on the same classification, those 6 hours cost the same as 8.25 hours at the minimum hourly rate (3 × 125% + 3 × 150% = 3.75 + 4.5).

The evening part-timer finishes at 21:00, so the earliest they can start on Friday without the 200% rate is 9:00, unless a 10 hour break has been agreed under clause 16.6(d). The same applies to the casual. If either is on Friday’s opening roster, the late close and the opening need different people.

Getting people home safely

A finish time that suits the business can leave someone waiting for a bus that has stopped running. Ask your evening staff how they get home before you set the close, and roster with the answer in mind.

• Close with at least two people where you can, so nobody locks up alone.
• Finish the close in time for the last train or bus for anyone who relies on it.
• Keep the cash-up and lock-up routine the same every night, so it is quick and nothing is left out in the dark.
• Check the evening roster for younger staff with their parents or guardians if the finish is late.

Late nights before Christmas bring their own public holiday and leave questions, so check the public holidays page for the dates in your state before that roster goes out.

Roster Flow keeps the evening crew in step: availability and leave from staff phones, the roster published to everybody at once, clock ins that become timesheets, and approved hours sent to Xero, MYOB or a CSV file.

A late-night roster checklist

• Late nights trialled for several weeks, with sales recorded by hour
• Evening hours costed at their own penalty rates, including the close
• Every finish time checked against the span of ordinary hours in your award
• Night fill crews costed under the shiftwork rules if they are employed as shiftworkers
• Separate day and evening crews, with a short overlap for the handover
• Breaks placed according to the award’s table and rules
• Every late closer’s next start checked against the minimum break between shifts
• The late close rotated fairly, with nobody locking up alone

Sources

• Fair Work Commission: General Retail Industry Award 2020 [MA000004]
• Fair Work Commission: Restaurant Industry Award 2020 [MA000119]
• Fair Work Commission: Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 [MA000009]
• Fair Work Ombudsman: find my award

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