Don't know if Australian practices will be relevant, but most companies would pay penalty rates of some sort for shift work or weekends.
In the Public Sector, a 50% loading is paid for weekends and a 150% loading is paid for working on a public holiday.
Shift work outside of core hours (8 am - 6 pm) attracts a penalty of 15% for those hours worked outside the core hours.
Following information is an extract from Government policy. Hope this is of some help.
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Section 6: Hours of Duty outside the Span of to Monday to Friday inclusive
(i)
Where a Chief Executive regularly requires Public Sector Management Act employees to perform their ordinary hours of duty outside the current span of hours of to , Monday to Friday (as currently prescribed in this Determination) the following rates of pay will be applicable:
· Where the employee works a complete rostered work period that commences at or after 12 noon and finishes after and at or before 12 midnight, the employee will be paid an allowance of 15 percent of (and in addition to) his/her ordinary rate of pay for the entire rostered period of work.
· Where an employee works a complete rostered work period that commences at or after and finishes after 12 midnight and at or before , the employee will be paid an allowance of 15 percent of (and in addition to) his/her ordinary rate of pay for the entire rostered period of work.
· An employee whilst working ordinary hours on a Saturday or Sunday will be paid an allowance of 50 percent of his/her ordinary rate of pay
· An employee whilst working ordinary hours on a Public Holiday will be paid an allowance of 150 percent of his/her ordinary rate of pay.
· Where an employee completes a rostered period of work which commences before 12 noon but finishes after (and there is no entitlement to overtime) the employee will only be paid an allowance of 15 percent of (and in addition to) his/her ordinary rate of pay for the time worked after .
· Where an employee completes a rostered period of work which commences before and finishes after (and there is no entitlement to overtime) the employee will only be paid an allowance of 15 percent of (and in addition to) his/her ordinary rate of pay for the time worked before
(ii)
When introducing any changes to employees ordinary hours of work, managers are required to consult with the employees concerned (and their representative(s) as appropriate) and to give reasonable notice of the changes that will be occurring.
(iii)
It is important to note that the above does not prohibit agencies developing alternative arrangements in respect of the hours of duty for the employees concerned as part of the enterprise bargaining process.
PROGRESS ENTERPRISE
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