Overview
Rostered Days Off are days off from work that allow Weekly employees uninterrupted time to rest and recharge; contributing to good long term physical and mental health.
Rostered Days Off (RDOs) entitlements (how many RDOs are required each calendar week) are specified by the Award, and the company is legally obliged to comply with the requirements.
In a “standard” week (no Work on an RDO), full-time employees are assigned five working days and two RDOs. RDOs are not always on Saturday and Sunday and may not always be on consecutive days.
Work can be scheduled on an RDO and employees are compensated for this overtime in a couple of different ways based on their employment classification, covered in more detail in this policy.
Weekends and RDOs
In many industries, the weekend – Saturday and Sunday – stand as RDOs. The Award recognises that in our industry work may happen on any of the seven days of the week. Accordingly, RDOs may be scheduled on any day of the week – there’s no expectation that Saturday and Sunday will be RDOs (but they may be sometimes, for some staff).
Therefore, working on a Saturday or Sunday is not considered Work on an RDO necessarily.
Scheduling of RDOs
Employee preferences for when RDOs are scheduled cannot always be accommodated but will always be considered. This section also applies to scheduling accrued RDOs.
Allocation of an RDO is a combination of:
- Live Performance Award requirements
- Observing the Fatigue Management Policy
- Production Schedules
- Consulting with the employee
RDO “shifts” are always applied as 7.6 hours for the purpose of scheduling, but the Disconnect from Work policy applies to the full day (24h).
Employees are not required to clock-on or off for RDOs (unless work is being undertaken on the RDO!).
Example RDO rostering
Some RDO allocations for one example week include,
💼 = Working; 🏖️ = RDO
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Taylor | 💼️️ | 💼️️ | 💼️️ | 💼️️ | 💼️️ | 🏖️ | 🏖️ |
| Amari | 💼️️ | 🏖️ | 🏖️ | 💼️️ | 💼️️ | 💼️️ | 💼️️ |
| Morgan | 💼️️ | 💼️️ | 💼️️ | 🏖️ | 💼️️ | 💼️️ | 🏖️ |
👉🏼 Taylor was scheduled to work a “standard” work week, with RDOs on Saturday and Sunday.
👉🏼 Amari’s RDOs were scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday so RDO requirements for the week were met “early”, so Amari could be rostered for work on Saturday and Sunday to suit business needs.
👉🏼 Morgan had an RDO scheduled on Thursday and Sunday, and was rostered for work on the other days, to suit business needs.
The above patterns are all realistic examples of two RDOs being assigned in a calendar week.
RDOs, Tour Days Off and the City of Residence
When employees are assigned to a Job and the Production Schedule nominates a Tour Day Off, if employees are expected to be On-Call (and therefore holding themselves in Readiness) the TDO will not be allocated as an RDO, even if the employee is in their City of Residence.
If, however, employees are not expected to be On-Call during a TDO the day may be scheduled as an RDO for Weekly employees when in their City of Residence and the Disconnect from Work policy applies.
When employees is on a TDO in their City of Residence and they are not On-Call, MPH is not paid by its Clients.
Called in to work
If an employee is assigned an RDO on a TDO and they are called up for work (and accept), the RDO is voided and an RDO is accrued.
Work on an RDO
Employees can be scheduled to Work on an RDO by agreement or, the work may be unscheduled (something urgent comes up last minute).
Unscheduled Work on an RDO is only considered and requested where a work emergency requires it, per the Disconnect from Work Policy. As the employee is on an RDO, they may not be available to accept a request to work, even for work emergencies.
The Maximum Working Periods and the Fatigue Management policy always apply.
Example Work on an RDO scenarios
Some examples of Work on an RDO scenarios include;
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Outcome | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delilah | 💼️ | 💼️ | 💼️ | 🏖️ | 💼️ | 💼️ | 💼️ | 6 workdays 1 RDO |
| Seth | 💼️ | 💼️ | 💼️ | 💼️ | 💼️ | 💼️ | 💼️ | 7 workdays No RDOs |
| Jack | 💼️ | 💼️ | 💼️ | 💼️ | 💼️ | 💼️ | 🏖️ | 6 workdays 1 RDO |
| Myles | 🏖️ | 🏖️ | 💼️ | 💼️ | 💼️ | 💼️ | 💼️ | 5 workdays 2 RDOs |
Considering the table above;
👉🏼 Delilah is rostered to work six days, including Saturday and Sunday. She has one RDO on Thursday. Their work on the sixth working day of the week, Sunday, is considered Work on an RDO.
👉🏼 Seth is rostered to work all seven days that week – Saturday and Sunday are both considered Work on an RDO.
👉🏼 Jack is rostered to work the first six days of the week, but not Sunday. Saturday is considered Work on an RDO.
👉🏼 Myles is rostered to work a five-day week, Wednesday through to Sunday. Monday and Tuesday are RDOs. Myles did not work on an RDO in this example week.
Minimum Call Times and Work on an RDO
See the Minimum Call Time section of the Minimum and maximum working times policy.
Scheduling Work on an RDO
Managers who are considering scheduling employees to Work on an RDO undertake this as a negotiation with the employee, with schedules emailed and discussed in advance per the Rostering policy and Rostering process.
In the negotiation, MPH considers:
- Other employees and skills available
- Workload of the employee in the previous weeks
- Rest Days the employee is owed currently
In the negotiation, Employees consider:
- Obligations the company has to service its Clients
- How much notice MPH provided for the work
- If they could reschedule non-work commitments
- Their personal fatigue levels, and being able to work safely and productively
For example,
✅ The production schedule for a tour allocates Weekly employee Amari to work a 7-day week, meaning they work on two RDOs that calendar week. This was discussed with Amari beforehand, and Amari agreed.
In this example, Saturday and Sunday are treated as the days that work was undertaken on an RDO.
✅ It’s Saturday and Morgan is on a scheduled RDO, but there’s a serious problem with a Job they’re assigned to starting next week. Their manager considers the Disconnect from work policy and explicitly approves for Morgan to be contacted and asked to engage.
Morgan is at a wedding and can’t engage in work right now, they let their manager know.
That’s ok and the company will make alternate arrangements to manage the situation.
✅ Jasper is on an RDO but he made a major mistake with his paperwork for a Job and the client needs updates immediately to advance the shows. His manager contacts him and asks if he’s available to make the urgent updates.
Jasper agrees and is able to complete the work in 45 mins. He declines to complete additional work assigned by his manager to make up the minimum call time of 4h and is paid for the 45 mins he worked at his Base Award Rate.
Employees always clock-in for approved Work on an RDO and must leave a note in their shift stating who requested the work.
When work is scheduled on an RDO, both the RDO shift, and the work shift will be displayed in Workforce. This assists those processing payroll and employees to understand when Work on an RDO has occurred. Refer to the Rostering policy for more details.
Not Work on an RDO
It is not considered Work on an RDO when an employee chooses to work on a scheduled RDO (that is, a Manager or Supervisor has not explicitly requested this work).
For example,
❌ Casey chooses to check their email on an RDO. It takes 1.5 hours to read and respond to messages. Casey does not clock on.
Casey’s situation is strongly discouraged by the company. This work was not requested or approved and so is unpaid (even if Casey did clock-on), and this day is still considered an RDO.
❌ Frankie has an RDO but engages in an instant message conversation with a colleague. Frankie did not want to be disturbed but felt obliged to respond. They clocked on for two hours, as the exchange of messages were spread across the duration.
Frankie’s scenario is not acceptable. The work Frankie chose to do on the RDO, does not cancel the RDO.
Payment for Work on an RDO
Touring employees
If a Touring employee is scheduled for authorised work on an RDO, an RDO accrues.
This means that the RDO is “banked” and will be scheduled to be taken at some time in the future i.e. one full day off from work, with full pay at the contract hourly rate is taken.
RDOs can accrue up to a maximum of 6-days and then they must be taken.
Factory (no IFA) and OPSS employees
When Work on an RDO occurs, employees bank 1h of time off in lieu (TOIL) for each hour worked on the RDO, provided that 38h have been worked in that week.
Factory employees with an IFA
If a Factory classified employee has signed an IFA, they will be paid the agreed rate as provided for in the IFA for any work undertaken on an RDO.
RDO and TOIL payouts
If an employee is owed accrued RDOs or TOIL at the cessation of their employment, whether voluntary or by dismissal, RDOs and TOIL are paid out in the final pay.
Each accrued RDO is equal to 7.6h at the employee’s contract hourly rate.
Each hour of TOIL is equal to 1h at the employee’s contract hourly rate.
Employees may be scheduled to take their RDOs or TOIL in the lead up to their final day of employment at the company’s discretion.