This case is useful for any care, support, disability, home-care or community-services business that uses sleepover rosters. The dispute was not about whether the employee should receive something for the sleepover. The SCHADS Award separately provides a sleepover allowance, and overtime can apply if the employee is required to perform work during the sleepover. The question was whether the sleepover also made the surrounding rostered hours a night shift for the 15 percent loading.
The Full Court accepted that the Award drafting was not perfectly clear, but preferred Jats Joint's construction. A sleepover period was treated as distinct from work performed before or after it. The sleepover was not ordinary hours of work merely because the employee was required to stay at the client's premises and be available if needed. The Court also treated the sleepover provisions and shiftwork provisions as separate parts of the Award that needed to operate together.
For small providers, the lesson is to build payroll around the Award categories rather than informal roster labels. If a roster includes afternoon work, a sleepover and morning work, payroll should be able to show which hours were ordinary hours, which period was the sleepover allowance, whether any overtime was triggered during the sleepover, and whether any shift loading applies independently of the sleepover.