Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services (SCHADS) Award

The SCHADS Award covers employees working in each of the four sub-sectors in every state and territory:

• • – New South Wales

• • – Victoria

• • – Queensland

• • – South Australia

• • – Western Australia

• • – Tasmania

• • – Australia Capital Territory

• • – Northern Territory

The Award stipulates certain conditions depending upon the type of employment.
For example, a casual employee working in the home care sector must work at least one hour a week, whereas there is a minimum three hours a week rule that applies to a social and community services employee.

The SCHADS Award has gained a reputation as one of the most complex Modern Awards in operation. It has very precise conditions applying to workers based on a diverse array of criteria. Assigning a pay rate to you or your staff can be a difficult task. There are many different considerations for employers.

The table below provides a breakdown of the critical components of the SCHADS Award:

In addition to this set of criteria above there are also more than 20 allowances that may be payable to Schads Award Staff.

To break down some of the complexities, we recommend that an employer make at least 3 key considerations whenever they employ someone under this Award. These are:

a) Which of the four sub-sector will this employee be classified under?

b) Which pay point / level should the employee be assigned?

c) What type of employee is this? (e.g. full-time, casual, shift worker etc)

Our Fairtime Blog has much more valuable Schads Award information designed to help you.