Effective 1 January 2025, updates have been made to the SCHADS Award, mostly impacting employers providing services in the Disability and/or Aged Care space.
The Fair Work Commission has made changes to several Awards as part of its Aged Care Work Value Case
The main impact of these changes is an update to the classifications and a splitting of Disability and Aged Care home care workers and their applicable pay rates.
From 1 January 2025, minimum pay rates increased for eligible employees working in the aged care sector.
The increase an employee gets depends on the Award that covers them and their classification, however, for most of our clients, this applies to aged care employees covered by the SCHADS Award (including nursing assistants who were covered by the Nurses Award).
Updated rates can be found in this Pay Guide and will apply from the first full pay period on or after 1 January 2025.
(So, if you have already processed a payroll since the beginning of the year and did not apply the increase, you will need to do a back-pay calculation and process a non-scheduled payroll as soon as possible to pay the back-payments).
Other changes include:
home care worker classifications are split into two streams in the SCHADS Award.
new classification translation schedule added to the SCHADS Award. The schedule to help identify an employee’s new classification:
existing home care stream has been renamed Home Care Employees – Disability Care. It covers home care workers performing work for clients in disability care.
Further information is available here: Working in the social, community, home care and disability services sector - Fair Work Ombudsman
If you need assistance with classifying your team correctly, please let us know.
The SCHADS Award can be complex and difficult to interpret.
This guide will help employers in the Social and Community Services Industry to apply the basics of the Award.
We can assist you by customising this guide to suit your individual organisation and circumstances, with examples specific to the types of scenarios your organisation manages.
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