Broken shift

A broken shift is a single day's work split into two or more portions by an unpaid break — longer than a meal break — with the day's work falling within a set span of hours. It's the natural shape of home care and disability support: a morning routine, a gap, then an evening visit.

How SCHADS handles broken shifts

The SCHADS Award regulates broken shifts more carefully than most, because they sit at the heart of care rostering:

• One unpaid break is the default; a second break is only allowed with the employee's agreement.
• Allowances apply — a broken shift allowance per day, with a higher amount when there are two breaks.
• The span is capped: the whole day, breaks included, must fit within a 12-hour window from first start to last finish.
• Minimum payments still count: each portion of the shift attracts the award's minimum payment rules, so tiny fragments still carry a floor cost.

Outside care, other awards handle split working days through split shift allowances — hospitality's lunch-and-dinner pattern is the familiar example — each with its own rules.

Rostering broken shifts decently

A broken shift gives the business coverage at the busy ends of the day — and gives the employee a day sliced in half. The allowances price that imposition; respectful rostering keeps it occasional, agreed, and predictable rather than the silent default.

SCHADS Award cl 25.6 (broken shifts) and equivalent split shift clauses in other modern awards, under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).

Related terms

• SCHADS Award
• Meal and rest breaks
• Shift Patterns (library)