What is a broken shift? Rules for Australian employers

Written by Roster Flow. Published 21 October 2026.

Some work only exists at the edges of the day. Offices are cleaned before staff arrive and after they leave, home care clients need help getting up and going to bed, and a gym is busiest before work and after it. A broken shift lets one person cover both ends without being paid to wait through the middle. Whether you can roster one, and on what terms, depends on the award, and the awards that use the term do not agree on the details.

Broken shifts, split shifts and broken periods of work

The idea is the same across industries, but the name changes with the award. The site’s glossary has short definitions of a broken shift and a split shift. In the award text itself:

• Broken shift is the term in the Cleaning Services Award, the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award (SCHADS), the Aged Care Award, the Security Services Industry Award, the Fitness Industry Award and the Children’s Services Award.
• Broken periods of work is the term in the Registered and Licensed Clubs Award, which pays an allowance to an employee other than a casual who is required to work ordinary hours on any day in more than one period, other than for meal breaks (clause 19.2(c)).
• Broken working day is the term in the Restaurant Industry Award, where a full-time or part-time employee who has one is paid a split shift allowance for each separate work period of 2 hours or more (clause 21.3).

This article covers the awards that use the broken shift wording, where most of the detailed rules sit. Several of them keep an ordinary meal break separate from the gap in a broken shift: the Cleaning award excludes meal breaks and rest breaks from the periods of duty (clause 17.2(a)), the Aged Care and SCHADS awards count breaks other than a meal break (clauses 22.8(a) and 25.6(a)), and the Clubs allowance does not apply to periods separated only by the meal breaks in its clause 17. The Security award’s periods of duty are exclusive of rest breaks (clause 13.3(h)).

How six awards define a broken shift

The table sets out the definition and the main limits in each award, from the current award text including variations to 1 July 2026. Confirm which award covers your employees with the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Find my award tool first, because an employer can have employees under more than one.

Allowance amounts change over time, so this article does not quote them. Check the current amounts in the award, and the hourly rates on the Cleaning, SCHADS, Aged Care and Security award pay rates pages.

How short each part can be

The shortest part of a broken shift is where most rostering mistakes happen, because a short visit or a quick clean can fall under the minimum payment. Each award handles it differently.

• SCHADS. Part-time and casual employees are paid a minimum for each shift or period of work in a broken shift: 3 hours for social and community services employees, except when undertaking disability services work, and 2 hours for all other employees (clause 10.5).
• Aged Care. Each portion of the shift must meet the minimum engagement in clause 22.7(b) (clause 22.8(f)), which is a minimum payment of 2 hours for permanent part-time and casual employees.
• Security. An employee who works broken shifts is paid for at least 3 hours for each period of duty, even if they work for a shorter time (clause 13.3(i)).
• Fitness. The rule is on the whole shift rather than each part: not less than 3 hours in total, exclusive of meal breaks (clause 13.4(b)).
• Cleaning. A part-time or casual employee must be rostered on any shift for a minimum that depends on the size of the cleaning area, such as 2 consecutive hours at a location of up to 2000 square metres, and paid for that minimum even if they work less (clauses 13.5(c) and (d)). Clause 17.2 does not say whether each period of duty counts as a shift for this purpose, so plan each part at or above the minimum, or confirm the point with the Fair Work Ombudsman.

SCHADS adds a rule that changes what counts as a break. Where a break in work falls within a minimum payment period, it is counted as time worked and is not a break in the shift (clause 25.6(c)). A home care worker who finishes a visit at 7:45 after starting at 7:00 is paid to 9:00 under the 2 hour minimum, so a gap from 7:45 to 8:30 before the next visit is time worked, not the unpaid break of a broken shift. The glossary explains minimum engagement if the term is new.

The gap in the middle and the break before the next day

Two different breaks matter on a broken shift: the unpaid gap between the parts, and the rest between one working day and the next.

• How long the gap can be. The Cleaning award needs a break of longer than one hour for the day to be a broken shift at all, inside the 13 hour spread (clause 17.2(a)). The Aged Care award limits the breaks, other than a meal break, to a total of not more than 4 hours (clause 22.8(a)). SCHADS, Fitness and Children’s Services limit the gap through the 12 hour span or spread instead.
• How many gaps. SCHADS allows 1 unpaid break as the rule, and a second only if the employer and employee agree before each occasion, unless the 2 break broken shift is part of the agreed regular pattern of work in the part-time agreement (clause 25.6(b)). The Security and Fitness awards allow no more than 2 periods or parts (clauses 13.3(h) and 13.4(a)).
• Rest before the next day. SCHADS and the Aged Care award require a minimum break of 10 hours between broken shifts rostered on successive days (clauses 25.6(g) and 22.8(e)). The Cleaning award requires at least 8 consecutive hours between finishing one shift of ordinary hours and starting the next, and pays the overtime rate until the employee has had that break (clauses 14.4(a) and (b)).

Measure the rest before the next day from the end of the last part, not the first. A home care worker whose second part ends at 19:30 cannot start the next day’s broken shift before 5:30 under the 10 hour rule, even though their morning part finished at 9:00.

Agreement, written records and notice

Several of these awards make a broken shift something you agree rather than simply roster.

• Aged Care. A broken shift may be worked where there is mutual agreement between the employer and employee to work it (clause 22.8(b)).
• SCHADS. A broken shift with 2 unpaid breaks needs agreement before each occasion unless it is part of the agreed regular pattern of work (clause 25.6(b)(ii)).
• Cleaning. A part-time employee’s written agreement must set the times they start and finish work each day (clause 10.4), so a regular broken shift belongs in that agreement, and any variation must be recorded in writing (clause 10.5). A full-time or part-time employee’s roster can be changed by mutual agreement, or with 7 days’ notice or shorter notice in an emergency, subject to the consultation clause (clause 13.6(d)).

Moving someone onto a regular pattern of broken shifts is also a change to their roster or hours of work. The Cleaning award (clause 28) and the SCHADS award (clause 8A) each have a clause on consultation about changes to rosters or hours of work, so check the equivalent clause in your award. Talk to the employee before the pattern starts, not after the roster is out.

A worked example: an office cleaner and a home care worker

A cleaning business covered by the Cleaning Services Award employs Dana, a part-time cleaner, at an office with a cleaning area of 1,500 square metres. Her written agreement sets Monday to Friday from 6:00 to 9:00 and from 15:30 to 18:00. A disability and home care provider covered by the SCHADS Award employs Sam, a part-time home care employee, for a morning visit from 7:00 to 9:00 and an evening visit from 16:00 to 18:30.

Two changes come up. Dana’s client asks for the evening clean to run until 19:00. That keeps the spread at 13 hours, still inside the clause 17.2(a) limit, but the evening part now finishes after 6.00 pm, and Table 7 in clause 20.2 sets a higher rate for a Monday to Friday shift that starts before 6.00 am or finishes after 6.00 pm. How that rate applies across the two parts of a broken shift is worth confirming with the Fair Work Ombudsman before you agree the change, and the change itself needs to be recorded in writing as a variation to her agreement.

Sam’s provider wants to add a 45 minute lunchtime visit from 12:00 to 12:45. That would make three periods of work with two unpaid breaks, which needs Sam’s agreement before the day, or a change to the regular pattern in his part-time agreement (clause 25.6(b)), and would attract the higher allowance in clause 20.12(b). The new visit is also paid for at least 2 hours under clause 10.5, so the provider checks whether it could be added onto the morning visit instead.

How to roster broken shifts

1. Confirm the awardUse Find my award for each group of employees, and check whether an enterprise agreement applies instead.
2. Check the definitionMake sure the day fits the award’s broken shift: the number of parts, the length of the gap, and the spread or span from the first start to the last finish.
3. Size every partPlan each part at or above the minimum payment in the award, so you are not paying for time nobody works.
4. Get the agreement in writingWhere the award needs agreement, or a part-time agreement sets start and finish times, record the pattern before it starts.
5. Cost the allowanceAdd the broken shift allowance and any penalty rates to the week’s estimate. The roster cost calculator works from rates you enter.
6. Check the next dayMeasure the break before the next shift from the end of the last part, and move an early start if it falls short.

The cleaning roster template and the support worker roster template both give each part of the day its own row, which keeps the spread visible.

Roster Flow keeps broken shifts in the same week as everything else: 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 broken shifts

• You know which award covers the employee and what it calls a broken shift
• The day has no more parts or unpaid breaks than the award allows
• The spread or span is inside the award’s limit
• Every part meets the minimum payment for that employee
• Any agreement the award needs is made and recorded
• The broken shift allowance is counted for each day or shift it applies to
• The break before the next day is measured from the end of the last part
• Anyone moving to regular broken shifts has been consulted first

Sources

• Fair Work Commission: Cleaning Services Award 2020 [MA000022]
• Fair Work Commission: Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 [MA000100]
• Fair Work Commission: Aged Care Award 2010 [MA000018]
• Fair Work Commission: Security Services Industry Award 2020 [MA000016]
• Fair Work Commission: Fitness Industry Award 2020 [MA000094]
• Fair Work Commission: Children’s Services Award 2010 [MA000120]
• Fair Work Commission: Registered and Licensed Clubs Award 2020 [MA000058]
• Fair Work Commission: Restaurant Industry Award 2020 [MA000119]
• Fair Work Ombudsman: find my award

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