Whether an afternoon or night shift is successive or not depends on the pattern of shifts at the workplace.
Workplaces as a whole set the pattern of shifts. An individual employee’s work pattern doesn’t impact whether the shifts are successive.
To calculate shift rates, use our Pay and Conditions Tool.
An afternoon or night shift is non-successive if the workplace doesn’t run it for:
- at least 5 working days in a row, or
- a full work cycle, when 38 ordinary hours are worked in less than 5 working days.
Example
Frank runs a large auto repair business. The business has an afternoon shift that runs 7 days a week.
Frank employs Seth as a part-time shift supervisor on the afternoon shift. He works on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Seth gets paid the afternoon shift rate. Even though Seth only works on 2 afternoon shifts each week, the shift runs 7 days a week. This means Seth doesn’t work non-successive shifts.

