Steps for Optimal Rostering and Time Management

A roster is a labour-cost document before it is a scheduling document. Every name on it carries a classification, and that classification — not the shift length — is what determines the cost of the hour. Managers who treat rostering purely as covering shifts routinely discover the wage bill moving for reasons the roster does not appear to explain.

Rostering is also a formally assessed competency in the national training package, SITXHRM008 Roster staff, which is core in both SIT40422 Certificate IV in Hospitality and SIT50422 Diploma of Hospitality Management. Its four elements are the best available checklist, and the order they appear in is instructive.

Build the roster from demand and available skills

The original rostering guide starts with a practical sequence: estimate the service demand and wage budget, list the jobs each shift must cover, check staff availability and credentials, then use a reusable template or software to model the week. Put experienced people on the busiest periods and review leave or public holidays before release. The award and higher-duties checks below help keep that workable roster lawful.

Start with which award applies

Before any roster question can be answered, establish which modern award covers the business. The test is the nature of the premises, not the employee's job title, and there are four destinations rather than two. Each award covers its industry to the exclusion of any other modern award, so exactly one applies to a given employer.

A commercial cook is a commercial cook in any of those settings. Which award applies depends on where the kitchen sits. Getting this wrong is the most expensive rostering error available, because it flows through every hour worked and compounds each pay cycle.

The three boundary rules that decide the hard cases

A registered club is not MA000009. Clause 4.4(d)(i) of the hospitality award states expressly that it does not cover "clubs registered or recognised under State or Territory legislation". Clubs are the one thing the hospitality award carves out by name. Under clause 4.3 of MA000058, a club is one that is both registered or licensed under a relevant liquor, gaming, associations incorporation or corporations statute, and established and operating on a not-for-profit basis for the benefit of members and the community. The not-for-profit limb is what actually does the work: a commercially owned venue calling itself a "club" is not a club for award purposes.

A night club is not MA000058. Clause 4.2 of the restaurant award names night clubs expressly. A night club is a commercial venue rather than a not-for-profit registered club, so it sits with restaurants and cafes. This is the single most counter-intuitive line in the set.

Fast food turns on sit-down service, not on the menu. Clause 4.2 of MA000003 covers meals, snacks and beverages sold primarily to be consumed away from the point of sale, takeaway packaged to be taken away, and food or beverages in food courts, shopping centres and retail complexes — while excluding coffee shops, cafes, bars and restaurants providing primarily a sit-down service. So a food-court outlet is MA000003 and the cafe two doors down with tables is MA000119.

MA000009 also expressly excludes several adjacent operations at clause 4.4(d), including boarding schools and residential colleges, hospitals, local government bodies, theme parks, in-flight catering, contract cleaning by companies not operating exclusively in hospitality, and contract security, gardening or maintenance. If the premises is one of those, neither hospitality nor restaurant coverage is the answer.

Classifications are also not interchangeable between the awards. Each carries its own classification schedule, so a level under one instrument is not a level under another for any substantive purpose, even where the numbers look alike.

One structural difference worth knowing for kitchen rostering between the two largest: MA000009 recognises both a cooking trade and a waiting trade for apprenticeship purposes, while MA000119 recognises the cooking trade. On entry to the Cook tradesperson grades, the MA000009 cook stream reaches grade 3 by apprenticeship, trade test or the appropriate level of training — three routes rather than one. Read MA000119's own entry wording from that award itself rather than assuming it either matches or differs.

Read that carefully, because naming a classification and recognising an apprenticeship in that trade are two different mechanisms. MA000119's own Table 3 — Minimum rates does name a food and beverage tradesperson grade: Level 4 comprises Food and beverage attendant grade 4 (tradesperson), Cook grade 3 (tradesperson), Clerical grade 3 and Storeperson grade 3, with Cook grade 4 (tradesperson) and the Food and beverage supervisor at Level 5 and Cook grade 5 (tradesperson) at Level 6. The apprenticeship trades an award recognises are a separate provision from that classification list, so do not read either one off the other.

The structural differences between the two largest awards also show up in the rate tables themselves. MA000009 runs five streams — food and beverage, kitchen, guest services, clerical and casino gaming, the last with its own separate rate table — and carries a Managerial Staff (Hotels) minimum annual salary at clause 18.2. MA000119 runs three streams: food and beverage, kitchen, and administrative and general, with no casino gaming structure and no managerial salary provision. Between those two the minimum weekly and hourly rates at Introductory through Level 6 are identical, so the differences that matter for rostering are structural rather than rate-based.

Classification is the real cost lever

MA000009 and MA000119 both run an Introductory level plus Levels 1 to 6. The ladder below is MA000009's.

Three provisions do most of the damage when they are not known.

The Level 4 floor, in three of the four awards. Under MA000009 and MA000119 (both clause 18.1, adult rates) and MA000058 (clause 18.3), an employee who has completed a relevant AQF Certificate III or higher qualification and who uses those competencies at work has a minimum classification of Level 4. The fast food award, MA000003, has no equivalent provision.

That floor is not discretionary. A qualified staff member performing qualified work sits at it whether or not the roster acknowledges it, and a Statement of Attainment is direct evidence of the entitlement. But note the "makes use of" limb in MA000009 and MA000119: the floor attaches to the work, not merely to the certificate. Which makes the roster the instrument that delivers or withholds it.

The Introductory cap. An employee may be held at Introductory level for up to three months while undertaking appropriate training and being assessed for competency, extendable by mutual agreement for up to a further three months. Six months is the ceiling. Rostering someone there indefinitely is an exposure, not a cost strategy, and the period is meant to be used for training. Keep Introductory level distinct from a traineeship: a trainee is paid under the National Training Wage rather than at Introductory level.

Level 4 as the reference point. In both of the two largest awards, Level 4 is the reference rate. MA000119 defines its standard rate as "the minimum rate for a Level 4 classification (Cook grade 3 (tradesperson)) in Table 3—Minimum rates", and in MA000009 the standard weekly and hourly rates used to calculate apprentice percentages are the Level 4 rates. So an error at Level 4 does not stay at Level 4 — it propagates into every allowance and penalty expressed as a percentage of the standard rate, and into every apprentice's pay.

The practical consequence for rostering is that a trained employee and an untrained one are not interchangeable hours at the same price. Building the roster without knowing who holds what is how a labour budget quietly drifts.

Higher duties: the two-hour rule that catches rosters

The same applies to higher duties, and under MA000009 it has a mechanical trigger rather than being a matter of judgement. Clause 22 provides that where an employee performs two or more hours in a day at a higher classification, the higher rate applies for the whole day. Where it is less than two hours, the higher rate applies for the time worked only. Food and beverage attendants grades 2 and 3 are expressly excluded from that provision.

The rostering consequence is specific: covering a supervisory slot for a two-hour block costs a full day at the higher rate, while a ninety-minute cover costs ninety minutes. That is not a reason to write ninety-minute covers, but it is a reason to know which side of the line a roster sits on before it is published rather than after the pay run. Rostering someone into a higher-graded slot is a classification event, not a favour. Clause 22 is an MA000009 provision, so do not assume the same wording sits in MA000058, MA000119 or MA000003.

Minimum rates are re-set periodically, typically operative from 1 July. Read the current figure from the award itself or the Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay and Conditions Tool, not from a web page.

"Appropriate level of training" — and the limb that has closed

Several MA000009 classifications require an "appropriate level of training". MA000009 clause 2 defines the term and gives three limbs:

Limb (c) is a closed transitional provision anchored to 30 June 2010. It is not a rolling three-month test and cannot be newly satisfied. For rostering this matters in a specific way: putting someone on a section for three months does not give them the appropriate level of training, and equally it does not let an employer treat a long-serving employee as already having it. Anyone who began that classification's work after 30 June 2010 gets there only through limb (a) or limb (b).

The other awards set their own date, and it is not the same date. MA000119's equivalent limb reads "other than a Food and beverage attendant grade 2 … as at 31 December 2009". Both are closed transitional provisions, neither is a rolling test, and neither award's date applies to the other — so read the award that covers your premises, and read MA000058's and MA000003's definitions on their own terms rather than carrying a remembered date across. Keep this distinct from the Certificate III floor above, which turns on holding and using the qualification.

What the rostering competency actually requires

SITXHRM008 Roster staff has four elements, and the performance criteria under each are specific enough to audit a real roster against.

Element 1 — develop staff rosters.

The unit's own list of policies a rosterer is expected to weigh is worth quoting, because it is broader than most managers assume: family-friendly initiatives, and leave for carers, compassion, illness, study, maternity and paternity, and long service. Study leave being on the unit's own list is the answer to a student employee whose roster clashes with a class.

Element 2 — present and communicate rosters. Present them in required formats so the information is clear, and communicate them to appropriate colleagues within designated timeframes. Predictability is a competency requirement, not just a courtesy.

Element 3 — maintain rostering records. Administer records of shift time actually completed by employees or contractors, and maintain rostering records according to organisational procedures.

Element 4 — evaluate rosters. Monitor the effectiveness of rosters in consultation with colleagues, identify ways in which the rosters and the roster development process may be improved, and take appropriate action.

The unit's knowledge requirements also name the provisions a competent rosterer is expected to understand: leave, mandated breaks between shifts, maximum allowed shift hours, and standard, overtime and penalty pay rates. Note what that list does: it tells you which provisions to go and read in your own award, rather than supplying a figure that would be wrong in three of the four.

Two things are worth pulling out. Consultation appears in both element 1 and element 4, at the building stage and the reviewing stage, so a roster produced and reviewed in isolation is not a competent roster by the standard's own definition. And element 1.1 ranks industrial agreements ahead of the wage budget — a roster that breaches the award has failed regardless of how well it controls cost.

Rostering an apprentice or trainee is a different problem

Where someone on the roster is employed under a training contract, the roster stops being only a cost document and becomes part of a wage instrument. Four provisions bite.

Release for training is not discretionary. Under clause 12.7(a) of both MA000009 and MA000119 the employer must release the apprentice to attend training or assessment without loss of pay or continuity of employment, and under clause 12.7(b) that time counts as time worked. Trainees have the equivalent right at Schedule E clause E.5.2 of the Miscellaneous Award 2020, released without loss of pay and without loss of continuity of employment, with that time counting as time worked; school-based traineeships vary. Rostering over a training block, or discouraging attendance, is an award breach rather than a scheduling decision. Clause 12.7(c) to (e) goes further and requires the employer to reimburse the apprentice for all fees paid to a registered training organisation for required courses and for required textbooks the employer did not supply, due by the later of six months after the apprenticeship starts, six months after the relevant stage, or three months after the RTO's training starts, subject to satisfactory progress.

Under-18 apprentices cannot be required to work overtime or shiftwork. MA000009 clause 12.5 says the employer must not require it, though the apprentice may volunteer, with exceptions only in emergencies. MA000119 clauses 12.5 and 12.6 add that except in an emergency neither overtime nor shiftwork may be required if it would prevent attendance at training under the training agreement.

The apprentice's rate moves on competency, not on the calendar, and it can move without the employer agreeing. For an apprentice indentured after 23 January 2020, where the legislation allows competency-based progression and the training contract does not say otherwise, progression runs by stage:

Progression happens when the RTO, the employer and the apprentice agree the requirements are met, or where the employer has been given written advice that the RTO assessed the apprentice as meeting the requirements for all relevant units and has not notified disagreement within 21 days of receiving it. Silence for 21 days is deemed agreement, and the higher rate is payable from the first full pay period on or after that date. Filing the letter and doing nothing accrues an underpayment. Unresolved disputes go to the state apprenticeship authority — the VRQA in Victoria, Training Services NSW in New South Wales — and otherwise to the award's dispute clause, and both employer and apprentice have rights of referral.

Not every apprentice is on the stage table

Three variations sit alongside it, and each changes what the roster is costing.

The adult-apprentice no-reduction rule is the one that catches employers converting a long-serving casual into an apprenticeship: the apprenticeship percentages do not override it. And the school-based 25%-of-actual-hours calculation is the reason a school-based apprentice's roster and their paid training time are two different numbers that have to be reconciled deliberately rather than assumed equal.

For a trainee, the training plan sets the rate

A full-time traineeship is 38 ordinary hours a week with 20% of those hours being approved training; part-time is fewer hours with the same 20%. Training may be delivered wholly on the job, partly on and partly off, or wholly off the job.

Under Schedule E the delivery mode changes the lawful hourly rate: approved training delivered wholly off the job by an RTO attracts the schedule rate in full for each ordinary hour, while training wholly on the job, or partly on and partly off, attracts the schedule rate less 20% (clause E.4.2(f)). Tourism, Hospitality and Events qualifications at Certificate I to III sit at wage level A, the highest of the schedule's three levels (A, B and C). A Certificate IV traineeship at wage level A is the relevant Certificate III rate increased by 3.8%.

So the 20% of the week that is training is not spare capacity to be rostered over, and the description of the delivery mode in the training plan has a direct effect on what each rostered hour lawfully costs.

Three further Schedule E provisions belong on a rostering page:

• On conversion between qualification levels the trainee moves to the next highest minimum wage in the schedule. That is a rate event with a date, and it is the second of the five underpayment causes below.
• An employee already employed by that employer immediately before becoming a trainee must not suffer a reduction in minimum pay.
• School-based trainees may agree to a 25% loading instead of paid annual, personal or carer's, and paid public holiday absence, under clause E.5.1. That is optional and requires the trainee's agreement, so treat it as an arrangement to document rather than a default.

The five ways a roster produces an underpayment

The regulatory material names five causes of underpayment in training-linked employment, and each one is a rostering or training-administration failure rather than a payroll error:

1. Misclassification of the wage level — a level B rate applied where level A applies, or the reverse.
2. Failure to progress the rate when it falls due — not moving a trainee on qualification conversion, or an apprentice on competency achievement.
3. Training delivery mode error — paying the full schedule rate where the training is on-the-job or mixed and the 20% reduction applies.
4. Age-based rate mistakes — the wrong percentage or the wrong age band.
5. Failure to apply the level floor — not recognising the Level 4 minimum for a Certificate III holder being used in that capacity.

Above all five sits a sixth: the wrong award applied in the first place. Underpayment can breach the modern award and the Fair Work Act. Check the classification and raise discrepancies using the Fair Work Ombudsman’s process. Eligible unresolved monetary claims may use a small-claims or other court process. If the missing pay formed part of ordinary time earnings, superannuation may also be short, but wages and super must be calculated separately under ATO guidance.

The constraints that sit above the award

Two caps operate independently of the classification structure.

The Fair Work Act sets a maximum of 38 ordinary hours per week for a full-time employee, with additional hours only where reasonable.

For an employee on a student visa, the condition 8105 work limitation applies per fortnight while the course is in session, easing between study periods. For a student employee this is usually the binding constraint rather than the award. The cap has changed more than once in recent years, so confirm the current figure with the Department of Home Affairs rather than relying on a remembered number, and diarise the visa expiry rather than checking work rights once at hire.

Credentials are a rostering constraint, not an HR formality

A roster that puts an uncertified person on a shift is a compliance failure the moment it is published, not when the shift starts.

Responsible Service of Alcohol must be held before any shift serving alcohol. RSA is one unit, SITHFAB021, under eight jurisdictional regimes.

Current regulator guidance: NSW, VIC, SA, QLD, WA, NT, ACT, TAS.

For a new Victorian RSA course, use an LCV-approved provider for the delivery mode and complete the required LCV Learning Hub surveys and sexual harassment and assault module as well as the national unit. Victorian certificate holders must complete the free RSA Refresher every three years. In Victoria, an interstate RSA certificate generally cannot be used on its own. Eligible holders can apply for the free RSA Refresher bridging course to obtain a Victorian certificate. LCV requires approved original RSA training completed within the last three years and, for an online course, residence interstate or overseas at the time. Allow about ten working days for the application. LCV lists a specific exemption for interstate liquor producers at qualifying temporary or major events. Check the Victorian eligibility and event rules before relying on a certificate. Queensland and Western Australia accept suitable national RSA training evidence from an RTO. This is subject to the correct credential: Queensland requires a Statement of Attainment for the national RSA course, and WA requires the RSA certificate rather than an interstate card alone. Check the Queensland requirements and WA requirements.

Gaming is a second rostering gate. SITHGAM022 Provide responsible gambling services is a prerequisite requirement for all gaming supervisors and gaming workers before they work in gaming roles, and a gaming supervisor — pit boss or pit manager — must hold an individual or occupational gaming licence and be competent in the units covering the particular table games they supervise. Victorian Responsible Service of Gambling is free government training that no registered training organisation can provide.

Food safety constrains the roster in a way people miss. Under Standard 3.2.2A, which commenced 8 December 2023, a certified Food Safety Supervisor must be appointed before the business engages in a prescribed activity, must hold a certificate issued within the immediately preceding five years, and must remain reasonably available — on site or easily contacted, for instance by phone.

That last requirement is a rostering test. A supervisor named on a wall chart who works Tuesdays and Wednesdays while the kitchen trades seven days does not satisfy it. Availability has to be checked against the roster, which usually means either more than one certified supervisor or a reliable contactability arrangement.

Food handler training must also be completed before the person engages in a prescribed activity, or the person must hold skills and knowledge commensurate with the activity. That training does not have to be nationally accredited, mandates no refresher period, and carries no record-keeping duty. The five-year clock belongs to the Food Safety Supervisor certificate only.

In New South Wales the FSS certificate must come from a provider approved by the NSW Food Authority under section 106H of the Food Act 2003 (NSW). We are not on that list and cannot issue a NSW Food Safety Supervisor certificate.

Steps that hold up

1. Build a skills matrix first. Who can legally and competently do what: RSA held and for which jurisdiction, food handler training done, Food Safety Supervisor certificate and its issue date, able to close, able to run a section, and which qualifications are held. The roster then becomes a matter of fitting the matrix to the trade rather than guessing. This is the "complementary skills mix" requirement made operational, and it is also what tells you who has triggered the Level 4 floor.
2. Roster to demand, not to habit. Match the shape of the week actually recorded, not the shape it had last year.
3. Consult before you build, not after you publish. Availability, study commitments and carer responsibilities are information you do not otherwise have, and the competency standard requires collecting it.
4. Publish it on a fixed day and change it rarely. Predictability is the single thing staff value most that costs nothing, and element 2 requires communication within designated timeframes.
5. Check the specific clause before you get creative. Penalty rates, overtime, breaks, minimum engagement, split-shift rules and notice of roster changes differ between the four awards. These are not interchangeable, no single figure is right across all four, and general advice is not a substitute for the clause that applies. Read your own award, or use the Fair Work Ombudsman's tools with your award code.
6. Mark training commitments on the roster before anything else. An apprentice's or trainee's training and assessment time is protected by clause 12.7 or Schedule E clause E.5.2 and counts as time worked, so it is not available capacity. For a school-based apprentice, reconcile the roster against the 25% of actual hours worked calculation rather than assuming the two match.
7. Keep the records. Records of shift time actually completed, swap approvals, and payslips. The retention period for pay and time records, and the required payslip content and timing, are set by the Fair Work Act and its regulations rather than by any award clause quoted here, so confirm the current requirements with the Fair Work Ombudsman. The award and the National Employment Standards must also be made available to all employees, on a noticeboard or by accessible electronic means, under MA000009 clause 3.3.
8. Evaluate the roster with the team. Element 4 requires monitoring effectiveness in consultation with colleagues and improving the process, not just the roster. The most common finding is that someone trained on a section is never rostered to it — which, under MA000009 and MA000119, also keeps their Level 4 floor out of reach.

Time management is a separate problem

A roster fails most often not because the hours were wrong but because the shift had no shape. Pre-service briefings, a clear order of opening tasks and a named person accountable for each section do more for a service than an extra body on the floor.

SITXMGT004 Monitor work operations, also core in SIT40422 and SIT50422, sets a benchmark here: plan and organise workflow for a team operation accounting for at least six contingencies from nine — delays and time difficulties; difficult customer service situations; equipment breakdown or technical failure; financial resources; staffing levels and skill profiles; rostering requirements; staff performance; procedural requirements; and product development and marketing. Rostering requirements and staffing levels are two of the nine, which is the training package acknowledging that a roster is one input to a shift plan rather than the plan itself.

The unit's knowledge requirements name time management principles, delegation principles and techniques, and industrial or legislative issues affecting short-term work organisation. That last item is the point of this whole page: a manager cannot organise a week's work without knowing the award.

When the roster becomes a dispute

The training package treats a roster argument as a competency rather than a personality problem, which is a more useful framing than it first appears. SITXCOM010 Manage conflict, core in both SIT40422 and SIT50422, requires a candidate to resolve team member disputes in at least two of four named categories — a dispute or argument among work colleagues; a drug or alcohol-affected person; job duties or rosters; and lack of competence. "Job duties or rosters" being one of the four named categories is the formal link between the rostering unit and the conflict unit: the training package expects a supervisor who builds rosters to also be assessed on resolving the disputes they generate.

The same unit requires resolving escalated customer complaints or disputes in at least three of eight named categories:

Four of those eight are downstream of how the week was built. The unit also requires applying the organisation's procedures for evaluating conflict resolution, which pairs with element 4 of the rostering unit: both expect the process to be reviewed, not just the incident closed.

Where the rostering competency is taught

That table is the argument for SIT40422 in one line. Three of its nine core units are HR units — SITXHRM007 Coach others in job skills, SITXHRM008 Roster staff and SITXHRM009 Lead and manage people — which is what makes it the supervision qualification rather than a larger Certificate III.

Where a full qualification is more than the gap requires, our scope of registration carries 17 current qualifications, 81 current skill sets and 579 current units, including SITSS00087 Mentoring and Supervision and SITSS00070 Hospitality Compliance. Ask for the code rather than choosing from the marketed list.

For an existing supervisor, recognition of prior learning is usually faster than a full enrolment. Registered training organisations must offer it under Standard 1.6, it is raised at the pre-training review under Standard 2.2 of the Outcome Standards for RTOs as an individual assessment, and it is a genuine assessment against the same evidence requirements rather than a waiver. Credit transfer under Standard 1.7 is the separate route for a unit already completed at any RTO, evidenced by AQF certification documentation or an authenticated VET transcript, with no reassessment. Someone who has been building rosters for two years often already holds a meaningful share of SITXHRM008, though how much is determined per learner. We first verify the evidence and equivalence, check that the units fit your training product, and check for licensing or regulatory restrictions before granting credit. See ASQA’s credit-transfer guidance.

See Certificate IV in Hospitality or its workplace-delivered version, Diploma of Hospitality Management, Certificate IV in Leadership and Management, Food Safety Supervisor and RSA. Begin with a skills assessment or a course enquiry.

Related reading: working hours, rosters and public holidays, superannuation, tax and payslips, managing and motivating your hospitality team, how to motivate employees, training up a manager, cross-training, building a training plan and hiring hospitality staff.

About us

We are Complete Hospitality Training, RTO 3722, CRICOS 04242E. Legal name Complete Hospitality Training (Vic) Pty Ltd, ABN 27 006 947 262, ACN 006 947 262. Registered as RTO 3722 since 1 June 1994, transferred from the Victorian regulator to the national regulator, ASQA, on 8 September 2017, with the current registration period running 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2032. Level 3, 28 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000, and 410 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010. Contact melbourne@cht.edu.au or +61 3 9654 1554. Confirm current course and fee arrangements directly.

We link to the relevant course and regulatory sources in this guide. Check those sources for current requirements, and confirm course availability, delivery, fees and entry requirements with us before enrolling.

Source records and further guidance

We link the unit records and regulator guidance relevant to this page below. Check the current source before making an enrolment, licensing or employment decision.

• SITXHRM008 Roster staff
• SIT40422 Certificate IV in Hospitality
• SIT50422 Diploma of Hospitality Management
• SITXCOM010 Manage conflict
• SITHGAM022 Provide responsible gambling services
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (Victoria)
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (Queensland)
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (Western Australia)
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (South Australia)
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (Tasmania)
• Responsible Service of Alcohol training requirements (Northern Territory)
• Food Safety Supervisor certificate requirements (New South Wales)
• Food Standards Code — Standards 3.2.2 and 3.2.2A (food safety practices and food safety management tools)
• Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 (MA000009)
• Restaurant Industry Award 2020 (MA000119)
• National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 — Standards 1 to 11
• Outcome Standards for Registered Training Organisations 2025 (full text)