Fair Work Commission Awards Database: The Definitive Guide for SCHADS?

It's hard to avoid talking about the SCHADS Award when you're chatting with anyone in social services, especially when it comes to scheduling or payroll.

Officially, the award is called 1695 / MA000100 - Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010. Credit to whoever had the good sense to shorten that to SCHADS!

As a newcomer to the sector, I’ve been on the hunt for the definitive guide to this award. It wasn’t until this week that I stumbled across the Fair Work Commission’s Modern Awards Database.

I was thrilled to find it and assumed it would become my go-to resource—my bible for understanding the SCHADS Award.

Unfortunately, my excitement didn’t last long. I quickly discovered that the database doesn’t include penalty rates or loadings, which are arguably the most complex and critical aspects of the award.

While other awards include these details, SCHADS is left with significant gaps. I even checked previous years’ data to see if it was a temporary omission, but found nothing.

For SCHADS, the database includes some information on allowances like split shifts. But it omits critical details on loadings for casual, afternoon, night, holiday, and weekend shifts, as well as remote response. There’s also no mention of minimum hours paid for these shifts. In my view, these are the challenging aspects—far more so than the base rates for each classification (e.g., Social and Community Services Employee Level 7).

If you’ve come across a more comprehensive resource—ideally from a central and authoritative organisation—I’d love to hear about it. And with your permission, I’d be happy to share that information with the group.  

Andrew Walker
Technology consulting for charities
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-walker-the-impatient-futurist/

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