Overtime is any time worked by an employee that is either outside their agreed ordinary hours of work, or in excess of the ordinary hours of work set by the Security Award.
You can require your security employees to work overtime as long as the hours are reasonable and are paid at the correct overtime rate. An employee can refuse to work overtime if the request is not reasonable, for example where there are risks to their health and safety, or because of personal circumstances including family responsibilities.
No shift, including overtime, can be longer than 14 hours (including breaks). If you and your employees have reached an agreement to extend the ordinary shift duration, you can roster an employee to work up to 12 ordinary hours, and any time worked over 12 hours and up to 14 hours must be paid at overtime rates. For more information, visit the Minimum & maximum shift lengths page.
If you and your employees have not agreed to vary the shift duration an employee can work up to 10 hours of ordinary time and an additional 4 hours of overtime per shift.
Payment for working overtime
All security employees are entitled to the following overtime penalties:
| Monday to Friday - first 2 hours |
+ 50% |
| Monday to Friday - thereafter |
+ 100% |
| Saturday - first 2 hours |
+ 50% |
| Saturday - thereafter |
+ 100% |
| Sunday |
+ 100% |
| Public holiday |
+ 150% |
Where a period of overtime starts on one day and continues into the following day, the work performed on each day will attract the loading which is applicable to each day.
Example
Mandy is a security guard and works part-time for Lors Enterprises Pty Ltd. Upon Mandy’s engagement she entered into an agreement with the company to work ordinary hours as follows:
Tuesday: 6.00am - 10.00am
Wednesday: 6.00am - 10.00am
Thursday: 6.00am - 12.00pm
Mandy was asked by her manager Daniel to stay back on Tuesday until 1.00pm; this is 3 hours of overtime. Mandy would be entitled to a 50% loading on her base minimum wage for the first two hours and a 100% loading for the last hour of overtime.
The following month, one of Mandy’s colleagues takes some leave and Daniel asks her to work overtime on Sunday night from 8.00pm until 5.00am on Monday. For working this shift, Mandy is entitled to double time, or a 100% loading, from 8.00pm until midnight on Sunday, time and a half, or a 50% loading, from midnight until 2.00am on Monday and double time again from 2.00am until 5.00am.
Minimum break following overtime
The Security Award requires that all employees have at least 8 hours off between shifts, including any overtime worked.
If an employee is not provided with at least 8 hours off duty between shifts, they are entitled to receive a penalty rate of double time (twice their ordinary rate), until they are released from duty. They are then required to have at least 8 hours off duty, with no loss of pay if the break results in them being off duty during times that they would ordinarily work.
Example
Tom is a security guard and works full-time for Security First Ltd. Tom’s minimum ordinary rate of pay is $19.50 per hour, and his ordinary hours of work are:
Monday: 2.00pm - 10.00pm
Tuesday: 2.00pm - 10.00pm
Thursday: 4.00pm - 12.00am
Friday: 4.00pm - 12.00am
Saturday: 9.00am - 3.00pm
Tom’s co-worker calls in sick on Friday night, and Tom is asked to stay back until 2.00am. To ensure that Tom still receives at least 8 hours off between shifts, his boss asks him to come in at 10.00am instead of 9.00am on Saturday morning. Because Tom’s ordinary hours start at 9.00am on Saturday, he is still entitled to be paid (at the relevant penalty rate) for the 1 hour between 9.00am and 10.00am on Saturday morning, even though he didn’t work this hour.
In the event that Tom was required to work his Saturday shift as normal, he would be entitled to receive double time per hour ($39.90) until he is released from duty for an 8 hour period.