Hi,
I was wondering if anyone could provide some clarification of 'standard' working hours here in Australia.
I've seen one contract offering a 38hr. week (7.6 hrs. per day) - which seems to suggest a 9am-4.36pm working day (assuming no breaks);
and I've seen another contract offering a 37hr. week, but specifying 9am-5pm with an hour for lunch (so actually 35hrs if you assume unpaid lunch breaks, 40hrs if the lunches are paid).

Neither set of numbers appear to add up! Am I missing something fundamental to the way Australian (VIC) working hours are calculated ?

Thanks in advance,
Mike.

Do they include hours for RDO's (rostered days off)

My OH works 40 hours per week, gets paid 38 then 2 go into a bank to give him extra days off in addition to his holidays. He never takes them though so we get them paid as a lump sum just before Xmas, or he could roll them over to the next year.

It's a bit strange how they work it, ads an example here's what I work.
9am start, 5.06 pm finish with a 38 hr week made up of 5 x 7.6 hrs 30 min unpaid lunch & 20 min paid smoko.
The 6 minutes extra each day totals 30 minutes p/w which makes the week 38hrs instead of 37.5.

Yep, and then there's another example from a place I used to work. 38 hours per week split into 8:30 - 5 with 1 hour breaks for lunch, then a half hour on Friday's.

Depend a lot on your employer too.

Outsideof government departments you'll find a lot of businesses just contract you for a standard week (whether that be 37, 38 or 40 paid hours) - but expect you to work 'as necessary' - which might mean in reality 50hrs+!!!

I'm supposed to work 38hr week - but generaly speaking I rock up at 7:30am, leave at 4pm and have round lunch as long as it takes (15 minutes if I bring it, or closer to 30 if I head out to grab something)... My personal downside is that I have to be on call (unpaid) for an average of nearly 20 hours a week so on a busy week I'll easily work 60hrs!!! ... on a quiet week I'll work closer to 45hrs, but still the stated contract of '38hrs' is meaningless fanatasy...

Do you get paid overtime or are you salaried? I hated being salaried, used to be on less than my staff by the time I'd finished

Nope - no paid overtime.... no compensation for being on-call, just another over-exploited IT worker!

Having said that they are giving me 4 days paid 'carers leave' on top of my annual leave to go to UK in May and I do get a generous 20% staff discount at any of our friendly fastfood restaurants....

I am contracted to work 37.5hrs per week with 'expected' unpaid overtime if required (we're always busy!). Last year I regularly worked over that and even took work home. I enjoy the work I do.

This year, they can get ****ed!

Lost count of the amount I do on top of the regular hours. Some gets paid, some doesn't, I reckon its about 50/50. I love the job though so I don't tend to notice the hours.

I also work a 37.5 hr week. Rarely do overtime (unpaid) - seems frowned on around here.

I know my OH would tell them to get lost if they thought he'd be working for nothing

Some of the bosses there are expected to work overtime, but they get paid for 50 hours per week anyway and a lot of the time only work 40 - 45 so it's swings and roundabouts for them. I know one or two have a 'tally' of the hours they have worked and make sure they don't do 50 hours average over the year.

Since starting back after the New Year our workplace is pretty much a ghost town by 4PM.

we just had a quiet patch last three weeks its been 7am - 1ish

thank the lord but one fella quit and another got sacked for stealing so our hours are back up to 7am -4/5ish

Hubby tends to do 6am - 4pm but he gets paid overtime for anything over 8 hours a day. Don't think hours were discussed in the package and he doesn't get lunch breaks as such, they just stop for smoko. Sometimes he'll be home by 2pm if a job finishes early.

I think what I'm trying to say is that there is no standard. Every business/company works to their own schedule.

I dont get paid overtime at all, I am meant to work 37.5 hours a week but have to do 40 hours a week.

I occasionally work on a Sunday if we have a contract but get the time off in lieu and if I do stay after my hours I get the time back.

Its a stressful job - very stressful but I work with some lovely people and would rather be in this job than anywhere else.