How to handle staff who want more hours
A request for more hours usually means someone reliable wants to work more. It is also easy to handle badly, by promising shifts that are not there, adding overtime by accident or quietly favouring one person. Here is how to find out what they need, check the hours and the rules, pick the right answer and give it clearly, even when it is no.
Most small teams have someone who asks for more hours at some point: a casual saving for something, a part-time employee whose childcare has changed, a student with study finished for the year. The request usually arrives in passing at the end of a shift and gets a vague answer. A month later nothing has changed, and the person has started looking for work somewhere else.
Handled well, a request for more hours can fill gaps you already have and keep a good employee. This article covers the conversation, the checks, the options and the record. For sharing out a single shift that has come up, see how to fill open shifts without messaging every employee.
Find out exactly what they are asking for
More hours can mean several different things, and each leads to a different answer. Ask four questions and write the answers down.
- How many more hours? One extra shift a week is a different request from going from 15 hours to 30.
- When can they work them? Days and times, not just any time. Update their availability to match, and the staff availability template gives a simple format.
- For how long? A few weeks over summer, until a set date, or for good.
- What would they accept? Someone who wants 30 hours may be happy with 26 now and a review in two months.
You do not need to know why they want the hours, only whether anything else in their week is changing, such as a second job.
Check where the hours would come from
Before you answer, sort the possible hours in the last 8 weeks of rosters and timesheets into three kinds.
| Source | Example | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Open shifts and regular cover | A Tuesday shift filled by a different casual most weeks | Whether the shift is there every week, or only in busy ones |
| Hours now worked by someone else | Two short shifts that could become one longer shift for this person | The effect on the person who loses them, and the award rules on changing their roster |
| New hours | Opening an extra evening, or cover you have been running without | Whether the extra trade pays for the hours |
The first kind is the easiest yes. The second needs care, because it changes someone else’s roster as well. Under the Restaurant Industry Award, for example, a proposed change to an employee’s regular roster or ordinary hours of work means consulting them first (clause 33). The third is a business decision, and building a roster around a weekly wage budget shows how to test it.
If your roster is already split into a steady core and a flexible layer, as in giving staff predictable hours without losing flexibility, the question gets simpler: is this a request for a core shift, or for a bigger share of the flex?
Check the limits before you say yes
Some limits come from the type of employment and the award. The rules in the table are from four awards, and other awards differ, so confirm which covers you with the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Find my award tool.
| Employee and award | What to check |
|---|---|
| Casual, Restaurant or Hospitality award | A casual may be engaged for up to 12 hours per day or per shift, and 38 hours per week or an average of 38 over a roster cycle of up to 4 weeks (11.2). The Hospitality award pays the overtime rate for time worked beyond those hours (11.4) |
| Part-time, Restaurant or Hospitality award | Additional hours can be rostered, but not outside the availability agreed in writing (10.6 and 10.7(a)). Time worked in excess of 38 hours per week, or of the employee’s rostered hours, is paid at the overtime rate (10.13(b)). Any change to guaranteed hours needs the employee’s written consent (10.5) |
| Part-time, General Retail Industry Award | Extra hours are a variation of the regular pattern of work, agreed and recorded in writing: for one shift, before the end of that shift (10.6). Time beyond the guaranteed hours as agreed or varied is paid at the overtime rate (10.8). A variation cannot result in 38 or more ordinary hours per week (note 2 to 10.6) |
| Part-time, Fast Food Industry Award | A variation for one shift is recorded in writing at or by the end of that shift, and a longer one before it occurs (10.5 and 10.7). Hours beyond the agreed or varied pattern are overtime (10.9) |
For a full-time employee, check your award’s overtime rules before adding any hours: preventing accidental overtime sets out the triggers in four awards, and the overtime hours calculator shows how many hours fall past a limit.
The National Employment Standards (NES) also set maximum weekly hours. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s maximum weekly hours fact sheet says an employer must not request or require an employee other than a full-time employee to work more than the lesser of 38 hours and their agreed ordinary hours of work in a week, unless the additional hours are reasonable. Among the things it lists for deciding what is reasonable are any risk to employee health and safety and the employee’s personal circumstances. If the person also works for another business, rostering staff with second jobs covers fatigue and the gaps between jobs.
Choose the right answer
Once you know what is being asked and what is possible, most requests fit one of these answers.
- Extra shifts on the weekly roster. Best when the hours are there most weeks but not every week. For a part-time employee, keep the shifts inside their availability, or record the variation in writing, as your award requires.
- First call for open shifts. Put them at the top of the list for shifts that come up, and tell them how the list works.
- More guaranteed hours. Best when the extra hours have been there every week for a while. Under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards the change needs the employee’s written consent (clause 10.5), and under the Retail award an ongoing variation is recorded in writing before it takes effect (clause 10.6(b)).
- Casual to part-time. Best when a casual already works a steady pattern and wants security as well as hours. The Fair Work Ombudsman says a casual employee can change to permanent employment at any time if the employer and employee agree.
- Hours in another role. If the gaps are in the kitchen and they work the floor, training them for it can open more shifts. A skills matrix shows where cover is thin; check the award classification for the new duties.
- Not now, with a date to look again. Best when the hours are not there.
When the extra hours have become regular
Sometimes a request is really about hours someone already works. Under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards, a part-time employee who has regularly worked more ordinary hours than their guaranteed hours for at least 12 months may request in writing an increase to their guaranteed hours. An agreed variation is recorded in writing before it occurs, and a refusal must be on reasonable business grounds, notified in writing with the grounds (clauses 10.8 to 10.10).
The General Retail Industry Award has its own review (clause 10.11). An employee may request in writing, once every 12 months, that guaranteed hours below the ordinary hours they have regularly worked in the previous 12 months be increased. The employer must respond in writing within 21 days, must discuss the request before refusing it, and may refuse only on reasonable grounds, such as the extra hours being temporary because another employee was absent on annual leave.
For casuals, the NES include what the Fair Work Ombudsman calls the employee choice pathway. A casual employed for at least 6 months, or 12 months with a small business, who believes they no longer meet the requirements of the casual employee definition can give written notice to change to permanent employment, and the employer must consult them and respond in writing within 21 days. An employer can’t reduce or vary an employee’s hours, change their pattern of work or end their employment to avoid those obligations. The becoming a permanent employee page lists the only reasons a notice can be refused.
A worked example: two requests in one week
This is an example, not a real business. A cafe covered by the Restaurant Industry Award trades from 7:00 to 15:00, Tuesday to Sunday. In the same week, two employees ask for more hours.
Casey is part-time, with 21 guaranteed hours: Wednesday to Friday, 7:00 to 14:30, with a 30 minute unpaid meal break at 10:30, so 7 paid hours a shift. Their written availability is Tuesday to Saturday, 6:30 to 15:00. They ask for about 30 hours a week, for good. Alex is casual and works Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 to 14:00, with a 30 minute unpaid meal break at 11:00, so 5.5 paid hours a shift and 11 hours a week. They are available only on weekends and Mondays, and ask for 15 more hours a week.
The owner looks at 8 weeks of rosters and finds two sources. A Tuesday shift from 7:00 to 14:30 has been worked by a different casual every week. A Saturday lunch cover shift from 11:00 to 14:00 was needed in 5 of the 8 weeks.
| Casey, part-time | Alex, casual | |
|---|---|---|
| Asked for | About 30 hours a week, for good | 15 more hours a week |
| Hours found | Tuesday 7:00 to 14:30, every week; Saturday 11:00 to 14:00, most weeks | None regular on weekends or Mondays, the only days they can work |
| Answer | Guaranteed hours go from 21 to 28, with the Tuesday shift, agreed in writing. First call for the Saturday lunch cover, inside their availability | Not now. First call for weekend open shifts, and a review on 1 March |
| A usual week after | 4 × 7 = 28 hours, or 28 + 3 = 31 in a week with Saturday cover | 11 hours, plus any open weekend shifts they accept |
Check Casey’s new week against the award. The written consent covers the change to guaranteed hours (clause 10.5). Every shift sits inside their availability (clause 10.7(a)). The 3 hour Saturday shift is within the 3 to 11.5 hours a day in clause 10.7(b), and even in a week with Saturday cover they work 5 days and have Sunday and Monday off, meeting the 2 days off in clause 10.7(c). The meal break at 10:30 is 3.5 hours into a 7:00 start, after the first hour and within the first 6 hours (clause 16.2), and at 31 hours the week stays under 38.
Alex’s answer is a no, but a specific one. The owner explains that the regular hours are on Tuesdays, when Alex cannot work, writes down the date of the request and the review date, and puts Alex first for any extra weekend cover over summer.
How to say no, or not yet
- Say why. The hours are not there on the days they can work, or the extra would push someone else’s hours down. A reason can be acted on; a vague answer cannot.
- Say what would change it. More availability, training for another role, or trade picking up on a particular day.
- Offer what you can. First call for open shifts is small, but it is real.
- Give a date. Put a review in the calendar and keep it, even if the answer is still no.
- Do not promise the next shift. Unless you will keep it, it becomes a broken promise the first time a shift goes to someone else.
Keep it fair for the rest of the team
One person’s extra hours are often someone else’s missing ones. Keep a simple list of everyone who has asked for more hours, with the date, the hours and days they want, and the answer given, and offer extra hours in line with it. Tell the team how extra hours are shared out, so nobody learns about it from the roster. A fair roster for casual employees has several ways to share hours openly.
Put the answer in writing
- The date of the request, what was asked and what was agreed, or why not
- For a part-time employee, the written agreement on hours and availability, or the regular pattern of work, updated with the change
- Their updated availability, so the next roster reflects it
- The first week the new hours start, and any review date
Roster Flow keeps the weekly side of this together: 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 checklist for requests for more hours
- How many hours, which days, for how long and what they would accept are written down
- The last 8 weeks show where the hours would come from
- Casual limits, part-time availability and overtime triggers in your award are checked
- Changes to someone else’s roster go through consultation and notice first
- The answer names a reason, what would change it and a review date
- Part-time changes are agreed and recorded in writing as the award requires
- Everyone who wants more hours is on one list, and extra hours follow it
Questions
Do I have to give an employee more hours if they ask?
It depends on the request. Under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards, a part-time employee who has regularly worked more than their guaranteed hours for 12 months may ask for an increase that can be refused only on reasonable business grounds (clauses 10.8 to 10.10), and eligible casuals can give notice to change to permanent employment under the NES.
Is it overtime when a part-time employee works extra hours?
Under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards, time worked in excess of 38 hours a week or the employee’s rostered hours is paid at the overtime rate (clause 10.13(b)). Under the General Retail award, time beyond the guaranteed hours is overtime unless the pattern was varied by agreement recorded in writing (clauses 10.6 and 10.8).
How many hours can a casual work in a week?
Under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards, a casual may be engaged for up to 38 hours per week, or an average of 38 over a roster cycle of up to 4 weeks, and up to 12 hours per day or per shift (clause 11.2). Other awards set their own limits.
Can a casual change to part-time to get more secure hours?
Yes, at any time if you both agree. Under the NES employee choice pathway, a casual employed for at least 6 months, or 12 months with a small business, can also give written notice, and the employer must respond in writing within 21 days.
What should I say when there are no extra hours?
Say why, what would change the answer and when you will look again, and offer first call for open shifts if you can. Write the request and the review date down.
Should extra hours go to part-time or casual staff first?
Check the rules and the cost for each person. A part-time employee’s extra hours may need to sit inside their availability or be recorded in writing, while a casual is paid a 25% loading under the Restaurant, Hospitality and Retail awards (clause 11.1).
Sources
- Fair Work Commission: Restaurant Industry Award 2020 [MA000119]
- Fair Work Commission: Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 [MA000009]
- Fair Work Commission: General Retail Industry Award 2020 [MA000004]
- Fair Work Commission: Fast Food Industry Award 2020 [MA000003]
- Fair Work Ombudsman: maximum weekly hours fact sheet
- Fair Work Ombudsman: becoming a permanent employee
- Fair Work Ombudsman: find my award