Charity Owes $2.6M to 1,500 Workers: SCHADS Award Pay Explained
Uniting Communities, one of South Australia’s largest charities, has agreed to pay back $2.6 million to approximately 1,500 current and former workers after the Fair Work Ombudsman found widespread underpayment across its workforce. The enforceable undertaking, signed on March 3, 2026, covers workers in community services, disability support, aged care, and family services roles.
If you work in community services, aged care, or disability support, there is a good chance you are covered by the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award, commonly known as the SCHADS Award. And if you have ever looked at your payslip and wondered whether the numbers are right, this case is a clear signal that your instinct may be correct.
Here is what happened, why it keeps happening, and what you can do about it.
What Happened: Uniting Communities and the $2.6M Underpayment
The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) investigated Uniting Communities after receiving complaints about pay discrepancies. The investigation found that the organisation had been underpaying workers across multiple entitlements, including base rates, overtime, penalty rates for weekend and public holiday work, shift allowances, and broken shift payments.
The underpayments affected approximately 1,500 workers across various roles and spanned several years. On March 3, 2026, Uniting Communities entered into an enforceable undertaking with the FWO, agreeing to remediate the full $2.6 million owed to affected workers.
An enforceable undertaking is a legally binding agreement. It is not a fine, and it is not an admission of deliberate wrongdoing. It means the employer has acknowledged the underpayments, committed to repaying every dollar owed, and agreed to implement systems to prevent it from happening again. If they fail to comply, the FWO can take the matter to court.
Important context: Uniting Communities has cooperated with the FWO throughout the process and self-reported some of the issues. Many not-for-profit organisations operate on tight funding models where payroll complexity outpaces administrative resources. That does not excuse underpayment, but it helps explain why a well-intentioned employer can still get it wrong at scale.
Why the SCHADS Award Is Australia’s Most Complex Pay System
The SCHADS Award covers more than 250,000 workers across community services, disability support, home care, aged care (non-nursing), family services, crisis accommodation, and related fields. It is widely regarded by payroll professionals, employment lawyers, and the FWO itself as one of the most complex Modern Awards in Australia.
Here is why it trips up so many employers.
Multiple classification structures. The SCHADS Award contains separate classification streams for social and community services, home care, disability services, family day care, and crisis accommodation. Each stream has its own pay levels, and workers can move between streams depending on the work they perform on a given day.
Broken shifts. Community services and disability support workers frequently work broken shifts, where the work is split across the day with unpaid gaps in between. The SCHADS Award has specific rules about how broken shifts must be paid, including minimum engagement periods and allowances. These rules have been amended multiple times, and many payroll systems do not handle them correctly.
Client cancellation provisions. If a scheduled client cancels, workers are still entitled to a minimum payment. The rules around cancellation pay vary depending on notice periods and the type of work. Getting this wrong is one of the most common sources of SCHADS underpayment.
Sleepover and on-call arrangements. Workers in residential care or disability support often do sleepovers or on-call shifts. The SCHADS Award has detailed provisions for how these must be paid, including separate rates for sleepover allowances, call-back minimums, and the transition from sleepover to active duty.
Travel time between clients. Home care and disability support workers who travel between clients during a shift are entitled to payment for that travel time. Many employers either do not pay travel time at all or pay it at a flat rate rather than the correct SCHADS rate.
Frequent Award changes. The SCHADS Award has been subject to more Fair Work Commission variations than almost any other Award in recent years, including significant changes to broken shift provisions, minimum engagement periods, and overtime calculations. Employers who set up their payroll system once and do not update it regularly often fall behind.
The FWO Is Targeting Aged Care and Disability Services in 2025-26
The Uniting Communities case is not isolated. The FWO has explicitly named aged care services and disability support services as enforcement priority sectors for 2025-26.
In the 2024-25 financial year, the FWO recovered over $358 million in unpaid wages for 249,000 workers across all sectors, issued 1,220 compliance notices and 743 infringement notices. Eight enforceable undertakings were entered into during the period.
The FWO has flagged the community services sector as high-risk for several reasons: the complexity of the SCHADS Award, the prevalence of part-time and casual employment, the high proportion of female workers (approximately 80% of the SCHADS workforce), and the sector’s reliance on government funding models that can create pressure to minimise labour costs.
The SCHADS Award is also the subject of an ongoing gender undervaluation review by the Fair Work Commission, which could result in further pay increases and reclassification changes for workers in the sector.
How to Check Your Pay if You Work Under the SCHADS Award
You do not need to wait for an FWO investigation to find out whether your pay is correct. Here is how to check.
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Identify your classification level. Your employment contract or letter of offer should state your SCHADS classification (for example, Social and Community Services Employee Level 3, or Home Care Employee Level 2). If it does not, ask your employer in writing.
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Check your base hourly rate. Compare the hourly rate on your payslip against the current SCHADS Award pay rates published on the Fair Work Ombudsman website. Make sure you are comparing the correct classification stream and level.
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Review your penalty rates. Check that weekend work, public holiday work, and evening or night shifts are paid at the correct penalty rate for your classification. SCHADS penalty rates vary by shift type and day of the week.
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Check broken shift payments. If you work broken shifts, verify that you are receiving the correct broken shift allowance and that minimum engagement periods are being met for each portion of the shift.
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Verify travel time. If you travel between clients during your shift, check that travel time is recorded and paid. You should see it as a separate line item or included in your hours worked.
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Review your superannuation. Confirm that your employer is paying 11.5% super on your ordinary time earnings. Log into your super fund to verify contributions have actually been received, not just reported.
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Keep your own records. Record your start and finish times, break times, travel times, and any cancelled shifts. Your own records are valuable evidence if a dispute arises.
What to Do if You Think You Are Underpaid in Community Services
If something does not look right after checking your pay, here are your options.
Step 1: Raise it with your employer in writing. Email your manager or payroll team with the specific discrepancy you have found. Be factual: state your classification, the pay rate on your payslip, and the Award rate you believe applies. Keep a copy.
Step 2: Contact your union. If you are a member of the ASU (Australian Services Union) or another relevant union, contact them. Unions have dedicated industrial officers who specialise in SCHADS Award disputes and can review your pay records.
Step 3: Use the FWO’s free tools. The Fair Work Ombudsman offers a free Pay and Conditions Tool at fairwork.gov.au that covers SCHADS Award rates. You can also call the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94.
Step 4: Lodge a formal complaint. If your employer does not resolve the issue, you can lodge a formal complaint with the FWO online. There is no cost, and you can do it anonymously if you prefer.
Step 5: Get your pay audited. For a detailed analysis of your pay against your specific SCHADS classification, entitlements, and shift patterns, consider running a professional wage audit.
Your Pay Should Be Right. Check It.
The Uniting Communities case shows that even large, well-resourced organisations can get SCHADS Award pay wrong for years before anyone catches it. The $2.6 million owed to 1,500 workers is a reminder that complexity is not an excuse for underpayment, and that workers who check their own pay are the ones most likely to catch errors early.
If you work in community services, aged care, disability support, or home care, take 30 minutes this week to compare your payslip against the SCHADS Award rates. If the numbers do not match, you have options.
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