Under the Retail Award, you must provide your retail employees with the breaks in the table below. If you employ shiftworkers, the entitlements may be different and you should check the award.
| Less than 4 hours |
No rest break |
No meal break |
| 4 hours or more but less than 5 hours |
One 10 minute rest break |
No meal break |
| 5 hours or more but less than 7 hours |
One 10 minute rest break |
One meal break
30 - 60 minutes |
| 7 hours of more but less than 10 hours |
Two 10 minute rest breaks, with one taken in the first half of the shift and another taken in the second half of the shift |
One meal break
30 - 60 minutes |
| 10 hours of more |
Two 10 minute rest breaks, with one taken in the first half of the shift and another taken in the second half of the shift |
Two meal breaks 30 - 60 minutes |
No employee can work more than 5 hours without a meal break.
Note: The Retail Award specifies that you cannot request your retail employees to take a rest or meal break within one hour of commencing work and rest breaks cannot be joined to a meal break.
Example
Luke is a new part-time forklift operator with McKenzie Engineering Products Pty Ltd. His ordinary hours of work are Monday to Friday, 7.00am - 1.00pm (six hours per day). During his first work period, Luke asks his employer, Paul, what breaks he is entitled to take during the day.
Paul has checked the Retail Award and tells Luke that he should take one 10 minute rest break in the morning, as well as a meal break of between 30 and 60 minutes each day. Paul also tells Luke that he will be paid for the rest break; however Luke’s meal break is unpaid.
Paul and Luke have negotiated an agreement that Luke will take the 10 minute rest break at 9.00am and the meal break of 45 minutes at 11.30am. They have also agreed that the breaks may be altered by providing Luke with notice, to better suit the business’s needs. Luke is entitled to payment for 5.25 hours per day, as the meal break is unpaid but the rest break is paid.
Breaks between shifts
You must give your retail employees a 12-hour rest period between finishing work on one day and starting work on the next day. The break between shifts can be reduced to no less than 10 hours by agreement between you and an employee or a group of employees. You should ensure that all agreements are made in writing and that a copy is provided to all affected employees as well as keeping a copy for yourself.
If an employee does not receive at least 12 hours off work between shifts, they must be paid double time until they receive a 12 hour break between shifts (or 10 hours by agreement). The employee is also entitled to be paid for any ordinary hours that they would otherwise have worked during the break between the shifts.
In addition, ordinary hours are to be set so that your full-time retail employees have 2 days off (in a row) each week or 3 days off (in a row) in a 2 week period. A retail employee may make a written request asking for this requirement not to apply to them. If such an agreement is made, you are required to keep a record of this as part of your record keeping obligations.