SYDNEY – Thousands of overnight staff in hospitals, service stations, fast-food outlets and warehouses across New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory will work an extra hour without pay on Easter Sunday as clocks roll back at the end of daylight saving, turning the night into a 25‑hour shift across those jurisdictions.
The one‑off pay gap stems from “by the clock” rostering, where wages are set by the scheduled start and finish times rather than minutes actually worked. When 2.59am is followed by 2.00am again, many staff complete nine hours on the job but are paid for eight.
How the extra hour disappears from pay packets
– Clock change: 2.59am is followed by 2.00am, creating a 25‑hour day in NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT as daylight saving ends in the early hours of Easter Sunday.
– Common pay basis: Many employers pay “by the clock,” so a 10pm-6am shift is recorded as eight hours even though nine are worked when the clock is wound back.
– Scale: More than one million Australians work in after‑dark industries, according to University of Melbourne research, including health, logistics, security and fast food.
– Compensated exceptions: Some enterprise agreements compensate for the extra hour with minute‑for‑minute or penalty‑rate provisions; others do not, leaving the default position as no pay for the ninth hour.
Retail and Fast Food Workers Union spokesman Josh Callinan said some agreements make workers whole, but the default settings are different in many workplaces. “We do encourage all employers to pay workers for the time they actually work,” he said.
“Some are short-changed lawfully.”
He said the union had raised the issue with employers and urged a consistent national approach so that workers were not “gambling” their Easter pay on the fine print of their rosters.
Who is covered – and who misses out
– Service stations: The award covering Australia’s roughly 14,000 service‑station staff specifies that daylight saving does not entitle employees to an extra hour of pay, meaning the extra hour is effectively worked for free.
– Public-sector examples: Reserve Bank security guards and Victorian public mental health workers are among the minority paid for every minute worked when clocks move, because their enterprise agreements expressly deal with daylight‑saving transitions.
– Holiday effects: Easter is a public holiday in every state and territory with daylight saving except Tasmania, intensifying the impact for workers who would otherwise receive public‑holiday penalty rates for the full time they are on duty.
– October offset: Employees paid “by the clock” receive an extra hour’s pay when daylight saving begins in October, but that day is not a public holiday, and the same person is not guaranteed to work both ends of the season, leaving many without a practical offset.
Union officials and employment lawyers say the patchwork of outcomes highlights how much depends on whether workers are covered only by a modern award or by a tailored workplace agreement that anticipates the daylight‑saving change.
Government response and wage case context
The Albanese government referred questions about whether Easter’s daylight‑saving change should trigger extra pay to the Fair Work Ombudsman, which said it was unable to comment on policy and noted that pay entitlements ultimately depend on the applicable award, enterprise agreement or contract.
Separately, the government has backed pay increases for low‑wage and award‑reliant workers in its submission to the annual wage review conducted by the Fair Work Commission. “Low-paid workers are more exposed to financial shocks and they experience greater financial hardship, and we support lifting their wages,” Employment Minister Amanda Rishworth said, adding that cost‑of‑living pressures were biting hardest for workers whose income is tied directly to award rates.
Workplace advocates say the daylight‑saving quirk illustrates how technical rostering rules can have real‑world consequences for the same cohort of low‑paid workers the wage case is meant to protect.
How Australia’s pay rules intersect with the clock
– Modern awards set base pay and conditions for industries and occupations; they can specify how shift lengths are calculated, including whether hours are counted “by the clock” or minute‑by‑minute when daylight saving starts or ends.
– Enterprise agreements can depart from award terms if they leave workers better off overall; some include specific minute‑for‑minute provisions for daylight‑saving changes, while others stay silent, defaulting back to award and “by the clock” interpretations.
– In workplaces paying strictly “by the clock,” the end‑of‑season rollback removes an hour from the payslip even though the physical hours worked increase, unless an agreement or contract expressly restores that time.
The rules sit within Australia’s national workplace relations system, underpinned by the Fair Work Act, which allows awards and enterprise agreements to contain detailed rostering and penalty arrangements but leaves daylight‑saving anomalies largely to be resolved at the bargaining table.
Status: The Albanese government has referred pay‑related questions arising from the daylight‑saving change to the Fair Work Ombudsman, which said it was unable to comment on policy.
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