Your union is in discussion with Service NSW in relation to paid overtime when working over your shift by 15 minutes or less.

Currently, Contact Centres take calls through Genesys and have an 8 minute rounding rule, meaning that you only have to work 8 minutes to get paid for 15 minutes of overtime.  Service Centres operate differently.

We have discussed this matter at JCCs and thought it might have been resolved for Service Centres with the introduction of early start, opening shifts and late finish, closing shifts.

However, we have had reports of members in Service Centres being advised when staying late that they haven’t worked the full 15 minutes and therefore will not be paid for the overtime.

If you are directed to work overtime then under the terms of your Award, you should be paid for the time you have worked.  However, Service has the right to expect that if they are paying you for 15 minutes of work, unless you are in a Contact Centre and have the 8 minute rounding rule, you are expected to work the full 15 minutes.

We appreciate that there has been confusion around the 15 minute timeframe which has been compounded by Service NSW relying upon Clause 98.1 of the Conditions Award which states that overtime is not paid if the total period of overtime worked is less than a quarter of an hour.

Discussions with Service NSW will continue while we seek to resolve this matter.  In the meantime, if you are working in a Service Centre, please discuss a local arrangement with your manager around staying late, what you will be paid and what the expectations are about available work to take you across the 15 minutes or whether working with a customer that doesn’t fill the full 15 minutes will be enough to get paid the overtime.

We will advise members as discussions progress.