Any work that your employees do outside of ordinary hours is overtime and must be paid at overtime rates. Your part-time employees receive overtime rates for any hours outside their agreed hours. Only certain casual employees are entitled to overtime rates of pay.
Details of the overtime rates that apply to your employees, including casuals, are in the Overtime Rates section.
Your employees may refuse to work overtime if the request is unreasonable, for example where there are risks to their health and safety, or because of personal circumstances such as family responsibilities.
Breaks during overtime
Your employees are entitled to a 20 minute paid crib break after each 4 hours of overtime worked.
In addition, employees who work more than 1.5 hours of overtime after their ordinary hours are entitled to a 20 minute paid crib break before they start overtime.
See clause 27 of the Vehicles Award for more details.
Time off after overtime
Employees must receive a minimum 10 hour break between shifts. They are entitled to be paid for any ordinary rostered hours during this break.
If you require an employee to continue or start work before they have had a 10 hour break, they are entitled to be paid at penalty rates until released from duty for 10 hours, without loss of pay for any ordinary working time.
Example
Jon works as a part-time mechanic for Eddy’s Services & Repairs. Jon works the following ordinary hours:
- Monday - 12:00pm - 6:00pm
- Tuesday - 6:00am - 2:00pm
- Wednesday - 6:00am - 2:00pm
- Thursday - 6:00am - 2:00pm
On Monday afternoon, Jon’s boss, Malcolm, asks him to work back until 9:00pm.
Jon is rostered to start work at 6:00am on Tuesday, however Malcolm tells him not to come into work until 7:00am. This ensures that Jon has a 10 hour break between shifts. Jon is entitled to be paid at his ordinary rate of pay for the time between 6:00am and 7:00am even though he is not required to work because these are his ordinary rostered hours of work.
If Jon was required to start work at 6:00am on Tuesday, he would be entitled to receive penalty rates for the entire shift.
You can use PayCheck Plus to help you calculate penalty rates.
Standby and call back
Employees who are on standby must be paid at their ordinary rate for all the time they are on standby.
If your employee is required to return to work overtime after leaving, they must be paid for a minimum of 3 hours each time they are called back to work.
This does not apply if it is customary for an employee to return to work to perform a specific task for less than 30 minutes, or if the overtime is immediately before or after their ordinary hours of work.
Different provisions apply to employees working in a garage or driving a tow vehicle. See clause 28.9 of the Vehicle Award for more information.