Do you know that you’re entitled to be paid for minimum engagements when you work short shifts?

You might be eligible for backpay if integratedliving (IL) is not paying you correctly.

If you are covered by the Family Based Care Association (Northern Region) Inc. Agreement, the minimum engagement is 1 hour. You must be paid at least 1 hour for any shifts less than that. However, IL have only been paying you for time worked (which may be as little as 15 minutes).

HACSU and members have long argued with IL that the income you make from short engagements doesn’t come close to matching the time and cost for you to attend these shifts.

Last year, a HACSU claim caused the SCHADS Award to be changed to introduce a minimum 2-hour engagement/payment period for part-time and some casual employees. (We pushed for 3 hours but managed to get 2 hours.) This is a significant win for workers.

This means if you are covered by the SCHADS Award, your minimum engagement is 2 hours. If your engagements are spread out throughout a day, short engagements worked within the 2-hour minimum engagement period are counted as one engagement, and the break between those shifts is considered as time worked. For example, if you have two 30-minute engagements starting at 9am and 10am, you should be paid 2 hours instead of 1 hour.

If the short engagements are spaced outside each 2-hour minimum engagement period, you must be paid for at least 2 hours for each engagement. For example, if you have 30-minute engagements at 9am, 12pm and 3pm, you should be paid for 3 x 2-hour minimum engagements, which totals to 6 hours.

It’s time for us to take a stand and demand that IL comply with the Agreement and Award by paying the minimum engagement amounts required.

HACSU is now leading the charge – if you haven’t been paid the correct minimum engagement amounts for short engagements, contact us so we can make a backpay claim for you. If you’re not sure whether you’ve been paid correctly, also don’t hesitate to reach out on 1300 880 032 or assist@hacsu.org.au

If you know any of your colleagues who are not yet HACSU members, please encourage them to join so we can make sure workers at IL will be paid what they’re owed.