Update for 1 July 2026
SCHADS Award minimum rates rose 4.75% in the Fair Work Commission Annual Wage Review, effective from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. Every rate, penalty, and allowance on this page reflects the new figures.
Teiro keeps SCHADS rates current automatically, so your rosters, quotes, and pay never run on last year’s figures.
What is the minimum engagement rule?
Under the SCHADS Award (clause 10.5), part-time and casual employees must be paid for a minimum number of hours for each shift or period of work in a broken shift, even if the actual work performed takes less time. The minimum is 2 hours or 3 hours depending on the employee's stream and the work being performed.
2 hours applies to:
- Home care employees, covering personal care, domestic assistance and home maintenance in a client's private residence, aged care or disability
- Social and community services employees when undertaking disability services work, which covers most NDIS support work
- All other employees under the award, including crisis accommodation and family day care employees
3 hours applies to:
- Social and community services employees at any time they are not undertaking disability services work, for example case management, counselling, community development and family support
The rule applies to part-time and casual employees equally. Full-time employees are not covered by clause 10.5, because their hours are set by their guaranteed weekly hours.
The award does not define "disability services work". In practice, direct support delivered to a person with disability is treated as disability services work and attracts the 2 hour minimum, while office based and program roles attract 3 hours. If a role sits on the line, get advice before you set the roster rule, because the difference is an hour of pay on every short shift.
When does it apply?
- The minimum payment applies to each period of work, not to each client. A worker can see more than one client inside a single minimum payment period.
- A break that falls inside the minimum payment period is counted as time worked and does not start a new minimum. Clause 25.6(c) says so expressly.
- Once a break falls outside the minimum payment period, the next period of work is a new period and attracts its own minimum payment. That is a broken shift, and it also triggers the broken shift allowance.
- Travel time between clients within a continuous shift is paid work time and does not create a new period of work.
What does it mean for short visits?
If you roster a 45-minute personal care visit, you must pay the worker for two hours. The extra time does not need to involve work - it is simply the minimum payment the Award requires for making someone available.
This is not a penalty or a fine. It is the Award's baseline protection for workers who are employed on a shift-by-shift basis and bear the economic risk of short calls.
Worked example
A casual Level 2, Pay Point 2 support worker ($46.70/hr casual rate, $37.36 base plus the 25% loading) is rostered for a 45-minute morning medication prompt visit.
| What actually happened | What you pay |
|---|---|
| 45 minutes of work | 2 hours minimum |
| $46.70 × 0.75 = $35.03 | $46.70 × 2 = $93.40 |
The worker earns $93.40 regardless of how long the visit takes.
The real cost of a short visit
When you think about what a short visit actually costs, the minimum engagement rule means your unit cost is effectively the 2-hour rate divided by the actual time needed:
This has direct implications for how you structure packages, quote for services, and plan rosters. Only once the actual work reaches 2 hours does the per-hour rate match the Award minimum.
Grouping visits
The most common practical response is to group short visits together. Instead of rostering a separate worker for each 30-minute visit, you schedule one worker for a block of consecutive visits in the same area. If the visits are back to back with only travel time between them (no unpaid break), the minimum engagement applies only once to the full block.
However, once an unpaid break is introduced, each subsequent period becomes a new engagement. See the Broken Shifts page for how that interacts with the allowance rules.
NDIS / HCP funding pressure: Some clients genuinely only need a short check-in. The Award does not require you to provide two hours of service - it requires you to pay for two hours of the worker's time. If the service agreement only funds 30 minutes, the provider bears the cost difference. This is one of the places where NDIS pricing and Award entitlements can create financial pressure for providers.
What if a visit is cancelled after the worker arrives?
Client cancellations are dealt with by clause 25.5(f), not by the minimum payment rule. Where a client cancels or reschedules a home care or disability service within 7 days of the scheduled service, and a full-time or part-time employee was rostered to provide it, the employer can either give the employee other work for those hours, or cancel the shift. If the shift is cancelled, the employer must pay the employee what they would have received, or offer make-up time. Make-up time is only available if the employee was told at least 12 hours before the service was due to start, and it must be worked within 6 weeks. A worker who is already at the client's door has had far less than 12 hours notice, so payment is owed.
Clause 25.5(f) covers full-time and part-time employees. It does not cover casuals. If you engage casuals for short visits, deal with cancellation expressly in your engagement terms rather than relying on the award.
Does the minimum engagement apply to sleepovers?
Not in the way it applies to ordinary shifts. A sleepover attracts its own allowance under clause 25.7(d). Two other minimums do apply: work performed during the sleepover is paid at the overtime rate with a minimum payment as for one hour, and where you roster work immediately before or after the sleepover you must roster or pay at least four hours for at least one of those periods. See the Sleepover vs Active Night page for how sleepovers are paid.