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MA000120: Children's Services Award Managed Template Improvements

The below article will outline the improvements to the Children's Services Award 2010 Managed Template in Tanda.

Updated over a week ago

Questions

When will these changes be live in my account?

You will be able to opt-in to these changes up until Tuesday 16 September 2025.

From Wednesday 17 September 2025 these changes will go live in all Tanda accounts with the Children's Services Managed Template enabled.

For the details on how to opt-in up until Tuesday 16 September 2025 and align the new automation with the start of the next pay period please see here.

How do I opt-in to the Managed Template update?

You can sync your Children's Services Managed Template to populate the above updates now by navigating to Time & Attendance > Compliance > clicking the + icon next to Award Template:

Then click the Update Award button next to the Children's Services Managed Template in your list of Active Awards:

You will then be prompted to confirm that you want to proceed with updating the Managed Template:

Once OK is clicked the improvements to the Children's Services Managed Template will just take a few minutes to populate in your account as indicated below:

Once the update is complete you will be taken to the Children's Services Managed Template settings page which will show that your Template is up to date as of the day you enabled the improvements:

On Wednesday 17 September 2025 the improvements to the Children's Services Managed Template will be live in all active Tanda accounts with this Managed Template enabled.

Managed Template Improvements

Please see the below details on the new automation and improvements added to the Children's Services Managed Template:

New Employment Types to facilitate Shiftwork conditions

Under the Children's Services Award, an employee may be engaged to work shift work per clause 23.4(a).

๐Ÿ“œ 23.4 Shiftwork

(a) Despite the provisions of clauses 21.1, 21.2 and 21.3, employees may be employed as shiftworkers.

The Children's Services Managed Template now has specific employment types that automate the conditions that apply to Shiftworkers.

If an employee is configured with one of the new Shiftworker or Permanent Night Shift employment types they will incur the applicable shift penalties set out in clause 23.4(c) and clause 23.5 for ordinary hours of work.

๐Ÿ“œ 23.4 Shiftwork

(a) Despite the provisions of clauses 21.1, 21.2 and 21.3, employees may be employed as shiftworkers.

(b) The ordinary hours inclusive of meal breaks for shiftworkers will not, without payment of overtime, exceed an average of 38 hours per week to be worked over a one, two or four week cycle.

(c) The following allowances will be paid for shiftwork:

๐Ÿ“œ 23.5 Weekend and public holiday work

...

(b) Provided that shiftworkers required to work ordinary hours on a Saturday will be paid at the rate of time and a half for all hours worked. Overtime worked on a Saturday by shiftworkers will be paid at time and a half for the first two hours and double time thereafter.

(c) All time worked on a Sunday will be paid at the rate of double time

For further details on the available shiftworker employment types in the Children's Services Managed Template please see below.

What are the Shiftworker employment types available in the Managed Template?

Employment types for rotating shift work:

  • Full Time Shiftworker

  • Full Time Shiftworker (8 Hour Break)

  • Part Time Shiftworker

  • Part Time Shiftworker (8 Hour Break)

  • Casual Shiftworker

  • Casual Shiftworker (8 Hour Break)

Employment types for permanent night shift workers:

  • Full Time Permanent Night Shift

  • Full Time Permanent Night Shift (8 Hour Break)

  • Part Time Permanent Night Shift

  • Part Time Permanent Night Shift (8 Hour Break)

  • Casual Permanent Night Shift

  • Casual Permanent Night Shift (8 Hour Break)

Configuring break rules for shiftworker employment types

The Children's Services Managed Template now sets out recommended break rules for shiftworkers per clauses 22.1(a) and 22.2 of the Award.

๐Ÿ“œ 22.1 Meal breaks

(a) An employee will not be required to work in excess of five hours without an unpaid meal break of not less than 30 minutes and not more than one hour. Provided that employees who are engaged for not more than six hours continuously per shift may elect to forego a meal break.

๐Ÿ“œ 22.2 Rest pauses

(a) An employee working four hours or more on any engagement will be entitled to a paid rest period of 10 minutes.

(b) Provided that an employee working for seven hours or more will be entitled to two such paid rest periods of 10 minutes each unless the employee agrees to forego one of these rest periods.

(c) All rest periods must be uninterrupted.

The recommended breaks for shiftworkers can be found by navigating to the Children's Services Managed Template page via Time & Attendance > Compliance > locate the Children's Services and select Manage.

Then you will find the break rules for shiftworkers set out under Breaks for Children's Services (MA000120):

If you would like to configure a break template per the break rules set out in the Managed Template, you can navigate to the Breaks Settings by clicking Edit:

Then you can configure a new break template for shiftworkers under the Children's Services Managed Template per the below:

Note: Per clause 23.4(b) meal breaks are inclusive of the ordinary hours of work for shiftworkers:

๐Ÿ“œ 23.4 Shiftwork

...

(b) The ordinary hours inclusive of meal breaks for shiftworkers will not, without payment of overtime, exceed an average of 38 hours per week to be worked over a one, two or four week cycle.

To include the paid meal breaks for shiftworkers in the calculation of overtime, you will need to enable Paid meal breaks are worked time in the Breaks Settings:

This will ensure the paid meal breaks contribute towards ordinary hour totals for overtime conditions.

For further information on managing and configuring break rules in Tanda, please see the help article Setting up and Managing Automatic Breaks.

To ensure employees receive the appropriate conditions, it is important to check that they have been assigned the correct employment type.

If your employee has been engaged as a shiftworker, you can utilise the appropriate shiftworker employment type to automate the award conditions that apply to shiftworkers under the Children's Services Award.

If the employee has been engaged to work rotating shiftwork (e.g. a combination of day, afternoon and/ or night shifts) they can be configured on one of the shiftworker employment types.

If the employee has been engaged to work permanent night shifts they can be configured on one of the 'Permanent Night Shift' employment types.

The requirements for a permanent night shift are detailed in clause 23.4(b)(iv):

๐Ÿ“œ 23.4(b)(iv) Night shift, non-rotating means any night shift system in which night shifts do not rotate or alternate with another shift so as to give the employee at least one third of their working time off night shift in each roster cycle.

If you need to update an existing employee or configure a new employee on one of the 'Shiftworker' or 'Permanent Night Shift' employment types, please see the Assigning an Employment Type section of the Managed Template Summary Guide for more information on how to do this.

For further details on the shift work penalties that are now automated via the 'Shiftworker' and 'Permanent Night Shift' employment types please see here.

New Employment Types to facilitate the 8 hour break between shifts agreement

Under the Children's Services Award, an employee is required to have a minimum break of 10 hours between shifts.

Per clause 22.3 an employee may agree to reduce the required rest period between shifts to 8 hours instead of 10.

๐Ÿ“œ 22.3 Breaks between work periods

(a) All employees will be entitled to a 10 hour rest period between the completion of work on one day and the commencement of work on the next. Work includes any reasonable additional hours or overtime.

(b) Where an employee recommences work without having had 10 hours off work the employee will be paid at overtime rates until such time as they are released from duty for a period of 10 consecutive hours without loss of pay for ordinary time hours occurring during the period of such absence.

(c) By agreement between an employer and an employee the period of 10 hours may be reduced to not less than eight hours.

The Children's Services Managed Template now contains specific employment types to facilitate the agreement to reduce the required rest period between shifts on an ongoing basis.

If an employee is configured on one of the '8 Hour Break' employment types, they will be paid overtime rates as outlined in clause 22.3(b) if they do not receive an 8 hour break between shifts.

What are the '8 Hour Break' employment types available in the Managed Template?

  • Full Time (8 Hour Break)

  • Full Time Shiftworker (8 Hour Break)

  • Full Time Permanent Night Shift (8 Hour Break)

  • Part Time (8 Hour Break)

  • Part Time Shiftworker (8 Hour Break)

  • Part Time Permanent Night Shift (8 Hour Break)

  • Casual (8 Hour Break)

  • Casual Shiftworker (8 Hour Break)

  • Casual Permanent Night Shift (8 Hour Break)

To ensure employees receive the appropriate conditions, it is important to check that they have been assigned to the correct employment type.

The '8 Hour Break' employment types should be used when an employee has agreed to reduce the required break between shifts to 8 hours on an ongoing basis.

If you need to update an existing employee or configure a new employee on one of the '8 Hour Break' employment types, please see the Assigning an Employment Type section of the Managed Template Summary Guide for more information on how to do this.

Automation of overtime for Part Time employees when they work beyond their Contracted Weekly Hours

Per clause 10.4(c) a Part Time employee must agree to a regular pattern of work on engagement:

๐Ÿ“œ 10.4(c) At the time of engagement the employer and the part-time employee will agree in writing on a regular pattern of work, specifying at least the hours worked each day, which days of the week the employee will work and the actual starting and finishing times each day.

If a Part Time employee then works beyond their normal hours, they may be paid at ordinary time for up to 8 hours by agreement:

๐Ÿ“œ 10.4(f) A part-time employee who agrees to work in excess of their normal hours will be paid at ordinary time for up to eight hours provided that the additional time worked is during the ordinary hours of operation of the early childhood service. ...

Previously, when a part time employee worked in excess of their agreed hours, the first 8 hours worked in excess of the normal contracted weekly hours would calculate at ordinary time.

Now, all time worked in excess of the normal contracted weekly hours will automatically calculate as overtime.

In the below example, the employee's contracted weekly hours have been set to 15:

The employee will incur overtime after the 15th hour of work:

For further details on configuring the contracted weekly hours for Part Time employees, please see here.

Managing the agreement to work up to 8 additional hours at ordinary time

The Agreed Additional Normal Hours tag may be added to the timesheet to facilitate ordinary time payment when a Part Time employee has agreed to work additional hours beyond their contracted weekly hours.

Before the Agreed Additional Normal Hours tag is added to the timesheet, the additional hours are treated as overtime:

After the Agreed Additional Normal Hours tag is added to the timesheet, the additional hours are treated as ordinary time:

The application of the Agreed Additional Normal Hours tag can be automated in Tanda via Shift Questions. For further details on how this works, please see here.

Note: Clause 10.4(f) states that a part time employee may agree to work in excess of their normal hours for up to 8 additional ordinary hours.

The agreement to work additional ordinary hours facilitated by the shift tag Agreed Additional Normal Hours does not cap the payment at ordinary time after 8 additional hours have been worked.

This aspect of clause 10.4(f) will need to be manually managed.

The ordinary hours will automatically be capped at:

  • 8 ordinary hours in a day; and

  • 38 ordinary hours in a period.

In Tanda there is additional functionality that can be set up to track and report on the number of hours beyond worked beyond the contracted weekly hours by Part Time employees.

For further information on the functionality available for this for this, please see below:

Using Roster Validations to flag additional hours worked by Part Time employees in the roster

To help track and manage the additional normal hours worked by Part Time employees at a rostering level, a roster validation can be set up to flag when an employee has been rostered past their contracted weekly hours.

The contracted weekly hours roster validation can be found under Advanced Overtime Validations:

Once configured the roster validation will display per the below when an employee has been rostered beyond their contracted weekly hours for the week.

The roster validation will display when the employee has been rostered to work more than their contracted weekly hours for the week.

For further information on configuring roster validations in Tanda please see here.

Using the Timesheet Report to report on the use of the Agreed Additional Normal Hours tag in timesheets

You can also report on the use of the Agreed Additional Normal Hours shift tag via the Timesheet Report and compare the employee's Contracted Weekly Hours to the Worked Hours.

The Contracted Weekly Hours in the report will display based on the number of hours entered into the contracted weekly hours field. The Worked hours will display the total number of worked hours for the timesheet period (further review may be required if the employee is on a fortnightly or monthly timesheet period).

For further details on the Timesheet Report, please see here.

Using Pay Checks to track additional hours worked beyond the contracted weekly hours

You can also utilise Pay Checks to flag when an employee has exceeded their total contracted weekly hours for the timesheet period.

The Pay Check for working beyond the contracted weekly hours can be found under the Timesheet Settings:

This can be set up to display in the timesheet as shown below:

You can also utilise the Central Pay Check Report to view triggered Pay Checks for a particular period.

For further details on configuring Pay Checks in Tanda, please see here.

Addition of Missed Meal Break overtime

The Children's Services Managed Template now contains conditions which automate the missed meal break conditions detailed in clause 22.1(b).

๐Ÿ“œ 22.1 Meal breaks

(a) An employee will not be required to work in excess of five hours without an unpaid meal break of not less than 30 minutes and not more than one hour. Provided that employees who are engaged for not more than six hours continuously per shift may elect to forego a meal break.

(b) A meal break must be uninterrupted. Where there is an interruption to the meal break and this is occasioned by the employer, overtime will be paid until an uninterrupted break is taken. The minimum overtime payment will be as for 15 minutes with any time in excess of 15 minutes being paid in minimum blocks of 15 minutes.

If an employee is unable to take an uninterrupted meal break of at least 30 minutes, they will automatically incur overtime until an uninterrupted meal break can be taken or the shift ends.

Important: Clause 22.1(b) sets out that the Missed Meal Break condition is to be paid in rounded increments of 15 minutes with a minimum payment of 15 minutes.

The functionality used to automate the Missed Meal Break condition does not support the function to pay the overtime in rounded amounts. The overtime will apply based upon the exact amount of time the break was missed for.

In the below example the employee's meal break was interrupted after 15 minutes. The Missed Meal Break conditions apply until the employee takes an uninterrupted meal break later in the shift:

Addition of overtime for working beyond a 12 Hour Spread on a Broken Shift

The Children's Services Managed Template now contains conditions to facilitate the payment of overtime when an employee works beyond a 12 hour spread on a broken shift in accordance with clause 21.3.

๐Ÿ“œ 21.3 Ordinary hours may be worked between 6.00 am and 6.30 pm. Where broken shifts are worked the spread of hours can be no greater than 12 hours per day.

Note: The overtime for working beyond a 12 hour spread on a broken shift is not applicable to the shiftworker employment types per clause 23.4(a).

If a day worker employee works a broken shift across a span greater than 12 hours, overtime will apply to all time worked beyond the 12 hour span. Please see the below example:

Further automation of minimum engagements during overtime

The Children's Services Managed Template now contains further automation of the minimum engagement periods under the Children's Services Award.

Part time:

๐Ÿ“œ 10.4(e) An employer is required to roster a part-time employee for a minimum of 2 consecutive hours on any shift.

Casual:

๐Ÿ“œ 10.5(c) A casual employee will be paid a minimum of two hours pay for each engagement.

Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays (all employees):

๐Ÿ“œ 23.4(e) Employees working on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday will receive a minimum payment of four hours pay.

The timesheet will now automatically buffer the shift to the required length based on the rate that would have otherwise applied if the employee had worked the required minimum engagement period:

For further information on the different minimum engagement periods applicable under the Children's Services Award, please refer to Minimum Engagements in the Managed Template Summary Guide.

Addition of shift tags to facilitate ad-hoc agreements

The Children's Services Managed Template now contains additional shift tags to facilitate several agreements/ working arrangements on an ad-hoc basis.

Agreed 8 Hour Break (Clause 22.3(c))

The 'Agreed 8 Hour Break' tag has been added to the Children's Services Managed Template to facilitate ad-hoc working agreements to reduce the required rest period between shifts to 8 hours instead of 10 hours.

If an employee has agreed to reduce the required break between shift to 8 hours instead of 10 hours on a one-off basis the Agreed 8 Hour Break tag can be used to facilitate this agreement in the timesheet.

When the Agreed 8 Hour Break tag is added to a shift, the required break between shifts will be reduced to 8 hours:

Before the Agreed 8 Hour Break tag is added to the shift:

After the Agreed 8 Hour Break tag is added to the shift:

Agreed 10 Hour Day (Clause 21.2)

The 'Agreed 10 Hour Day' tag has been added to the Children's Services Managed Template to facilitate ad-hoc working arrangements to extend the maximum daily hours for Full Time day worker employees.

Note: The Agreed 10 Hour Day tag is applicable to the Full Time day worker employment types only.

For one off or ad-hoc agreements to work up to 10 hours in a day, the Agreed 10 Hour Day tag can be added to the timesheet to apply daily overtime after 10 hours have been worked.

Before application of the Agreed 10 Hour Day tag:

After application of the Agreed 10 Hour Day tag:

'Agreed Substituted Public Holiday' and 'Agreed Non-Public Holiday'

The 'Agreed Substituted Public Holiday' and 'Agreed Non-Public Holiday' tags have been added to the Children's Services Managed Template to facilitate agreements for substituted public holidays.

The agreement to substitute a day that would otherwise be a public holiday for another day as detailed in clause 27 can be facilitated in the Managed Template via shift tag in the timesheet.

๐Ÿ“œ 27. Public holidays

27.1 Public holidays are provided for in the NES.

27.2 An employer and employee may agree to substitute another day for a day that would otherwise be a public holiday under the NES.

27.3 An employer and employee may agree to substitute another part-day for a part-day that would otherwise be a part-day public holiday under the NES.

If an employee has agreed to a substitute public holiday, the 'Agreed Substituted Public Holiday' tag can be used to facilitate payment on the day that is to be treated as the substitute public holiday. The 'Agreed Non-Public Holiday' tag can be used to facilitate the payment on the public holiday day that has been substituted.

The 'Agreed Substituted Public Holiday' tag will pay the employee at public holiday rates for work performed on a non-public holiday day.

The 'Agreed Non-Public Holiday' tag will pay the employee at normal rates for the time worked on. a day that would otherwise be a public holiday.

In the below example, the public holiday on Easter Monday (21 April) has been substituted for Thursday 24 April:

Permanent Night Shift

The 'Permanent Night Shift' tag has been added to the Children's Services Managed Template to facilitate the permanent night shift penalty set out in clause 23.5(c) and 23.5(d)(iv) for rotating shift workers if they are working a permanent night shift pattern for a set period.

(c) The following allowances will be paid for shiftwork:

(d) Definitions

...

(iv) Night shift, non-rotating means any night shift system in which night shifts do not rotate or alternate with another shift so as to give the employee at least one third of their working time off night shift in each roster cycle.

If an employee who ordinarily works rotating shift work is required to work a period of permanent night shifts, the permanent night shift penalty can be facilitated in the timesheet by applying the Permanent Night Shift tag.

In the below example, the employee is paid the regular night shift penalty the time worked:

When the Permanent Night Shift tag is added to the timesheet, they will be paid the permanent night shift penalty:

Roster Change

The 'Roster Change' tag has been added to the Children's Services Managed Template to facilitate the payment of overtime where an employee is given insufficient notice for a change to:

  • Regular Hours of Work - Clause 10.4(d)(ii) (Part Time employees)

  • Roster Change - Clause 21.7(b)(i)

Insufficient notice of change to Regular Hours of Work (Clause 10.4(d)(ii))

๐Ÿ“œ 10.4(d)

(i) Changes in the agreed regular pattern of work may only be made by agreement in writing between the employer and employee. Changes in the days to be worked or in starting and/or finishing times (whether on-going or ad hoc) may also be made by agreement in writing. An agreement in writing may be made by any electronic means of communication.

(ii) Where agreement cannot be reached, the employer may change the days the employee is to work by giving seven daysโ€™ notice in advance of the change in accordance with clause 21โ€”Ordinary hours of work and rostering.

(iii) The employer is not required to provide the full 7 daysโ€™ notice of change of the days an employee is to work where the employer makes the change as a result of an emergency outside of the employerโ€™s control.

(iv) For the purposes of clause 10.4(d)(iii), the overtime provisions in clause 23.2(c) apply.

(v) In clause 10.4(d)(iii), emergency means:

  • a situation or event that poses an imminent or severe risk to the persons at an education and care service premises (for example, a fire at the education and care services premises); or

  • a situation that requires the education and care service premises to be locked-down (for example, an emergency government direction).

Where the employer has made a change to a Part Time employee's regular pattern of work and has not provided 7 days notice of this change as a result of an emergency outside of the employer's control, the Roster Change shift tag can be used to facilitate the payment of overtime per clause 10.4(d)(ii).

Insufficient notice of Roster Change (Clause 21.7(b)(i))

๐Ÿ“œ 21.7 Rostering

...

(b)

(i) An employer may change an employeeโ€™s rostered hours, but only by giving the employee seven daysโ€™ notice. In the absence of such notice overtime will be paid until seven days have elapsed from the date the notice was given. However, an employee and employer may agree to waive or shorten this notice period in a particular case. Such agreement may be made by electronic means of communication and must be recorded in the time and wages records...

If an employee has been provided with insufficient notice of a roster change, the 'Roster Change' tag can be added to the timesheet to facilitate the payment of overtime as required.

Before the Roster Change tag is added to the timesheet, the shift will be paid at the applicable rate for the time worked:

When the Roster Change tag is added to the timesheet, the shift will be paid as overtime:

TOIL

When an employee has an agreement with their employer that overtime worked, that would have otherwise been paid for can be accrued as time off instead, they are agreeing to time off in lieu (TOIL).

The Children's Services Managed Template now contains TOIL conditions that can be applied instead of automatic overtime conditions as detailed in clause 23.3.

๐Ÿ“œ 23.3 Time off instead of payment for overtime

(a) An employee and employer may agree in writing to the employee taking time off instead of being paid for a particular amount of overtime that has been worked by the employee.

(b) Any amount of overtime that has been worked by an employee in a particular pay period and that is to be taken as time off instead of the employee being paid for it must be the subject of a separate agreement under clause 23.3.

(c) An agreement must state each of the following:

(i) the number of overtime hours to which it applies and when those hours were worked;

(ii) that the employer and employee agree that the employee may take time off instead of being paid for the overtime;

(iii) that, if the employee requests at any time, the employer must pay the employee, for overtime covered by the agreement but not taken as time off, at the overtime rate applicable to the overtime when worked;

(iv) that any payment mentioned in subparagraph (iii) must be made in the next pay period following the request.

Note: An example of the type of agreement required by this clause is set out at Schedule H. There is no requirement to use the form of agreement set out at Schedule H. An agreement under clause 23.3 can also be made by an exchange of emails between the employee and employer, or by other electronic means.

(d) The period of time off that an employee is entitled to take is the same as the number of overtime hours worked.

EXAMPLE: By making an agreement under clause 23.3 an employee who worked 2 overtime hours is entitled to 2 hoursโ€™ time off.

...

To categorise time worked as TOIL in Tanda, the shift must be tagged as TOIL so that time off is accrued instead of overtime rates being paid.

Overtime hours that have the TOIL tag applied will no longer cost in the timesheet.

Please see the below example of the application of the TOIL tag for a Part Time employee who is incurring overtime for working 8+ hours in a day:

Before application of the TOIL shift tag:

After application of the TOIL shift tag:

If you require assistance setting up your account to use shift tags or assigning shift tags to an employee profile please see the Award Template Tags section of the Managed Template Summary Guide.

Retirement of Full Time RDO & TOIL employment type

The Full Time RDO & TOIL employment type has been retired as a result of new functionality that has been incorporated into the Children's Services Managed Template.

Important: The Full Time RDO & TOIL employment type will no longer have any functionality in the Managed Template.

The historical application of the Full Time RDO & TOIL employment type will not change in a locked timesheet.

Any employees currently configured on the the Full Time RDO & TOIL employment type will need to be reviewed and updated to one of the other full time employment types available in the Managed Template.

Please note that the agreement for time off in lieu is now available for all full time employment types and can be facilitated via the 'TOIL' tag in the timesheet. For further details please see here.

Retirement of Outside Agreed Hours (Part Time) shift tag

The 'Outside Agreed Hours (Part Time)' shift tag has been retired in the Children's Services Managed Template.

Important: The 'Outside Agreed Hours (Part Time)' shift tag will no longer have any functionality in the Managed Template.

The historical application of the 'Outside Agreed Hours (Part Time)' tag will not change in locked timesheets.

The payment of overtime if a part time employee works outside of their agreed hours is now automated in the Children's Services Managed Template. Please see here for further details.

For details on how to facilitate the agreement to work up to 8 additional hours at ordinary rates, please see here.


Further Information

If you have any questions regarding the above, please contact our support team via live chat or email (support@tanda.co).

For further information on the Children's Services Award please see the Children's Services Award 2010.

For further information on the Tanda Children's Services Managed Template please see the Summary Guide MA000120: Children's Services Award 2010 Managed Template Summary

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