Rostered day off (RDO)

RDOs, or Rostered Days Off, are a practice where employees accumulate paid time off for a portion of their shift instead of being paid for the time worked. 

Your platform has the ability to automate this process so that RDO hours will accrue for your employees each time the employee works more than a specified number of hours per day.
 

How RDOs work

In your Award setup, you can add RDO rules to apply to specific Awards and Operations. These rules will be triggered automatically on an employee's payslip each time a shift that meets the criteria is approved.

We'll use the following scenario to look at how to roster for an RDO and how your platform applies RDO rules. 

Permanent employees and RDOs

If you are planning to set up automated RDO rules in your Award, the rules will apply to all employees with positions from that Award, regardless of employment type.

For your permanent employees, there are several considerations when using RDOs and how they work with other leave entitlements (Annual Leave/ Personal Leave, etc).

• Other leave entitlements are accrued when RDO hours are redeemed, not when RDO accrual hours were worked. 
• RDO accrual doesn't happen when other leave types are redeemed.
• Special consideration may be taken when setting up employee work patterns for Salaried employees.

If you need help deciding if the RDO process is best suited for your platform, please don't hesitate to reach out to our support team or your implementation manager. 

  For some businesses, they may refer to RDOs as a different process. For instance, if your permanent employees accrue paid time off whenever they exceed their ordinary hours, rather than receiving paid overtime. If this is the case, please refer to our article on Time Off in Lieu. 
 

RDOs are created by adding RDO rules to an Award. These rules include options for setting how many hours need to pass for RDO to trigger and the accrual rate.

Before applying RDO rules, there are a few key considerations to keep in mind, these include:

• RDO rules are set at the Award Level; as such, they cannot be tailored per employee. 
• RDO rules will apply to all positions in an Award, so if you have some employees who receive RDOs and others who do not, you may require multiple Awards. 
• RDO rules are set per Operation, so if you have multiple Operations, multiple rules will need to be set. 
• RDOs trigger automatically, once an employee's hours exceed the maximum ordinary hours worked, RDOs will automatically be applied.
   

To set up RDO rules in an Award: 

1. From the main menu, navigate to Awards & Agreements.
2. Select the name of the Award you wish to add RDO rules to, then select RDO. 
3. Select the required action:
   • To add a new rule, select Add New Rule.

   • To edit an existing rule, select the edit icon (pencil).

     

4. Complete the following fields:
   • Operation - which Operation does the RDO rule apply. 
   • Accrual - portion of the shift to be accrued as RDO. 
   • OTE Hours Worked - the number of hours worked a day before RDO hours are accrued. 
   • Calculate Hourly Allowances - there are 2 options for this:
     • Before RDO is taken - hourly allowances will include RDO time in the calculation. 
     • After RDO is taken - hourly allowances will exclude RDO time in the calculation. 
5. Select Save. 

RDOs can be viewed and managed directly from the employee profiles, like other leave entitlements. However, you will find that your employee's RDO balance will not appear on their profile until their first pay in a week with RDO accruals has been processed.

  Please note: If an employee works for 2 separate operations, they will have 2 separate RDO entitlements on their profile. This is because RDOs are split per Operation. 

Each time an employee works excess OTE hours that accrue RDO hours, their RDO balance on the profile will be increased after the corresponding pay run is processed.

In the example below, Angie has an RDO balance for Bailey Group. This RDO entitlement was automatically added to Angie's profile after her first pay was generated (that contained RDO accrued hours) for work performed for Bailey Group. 

If you find you need to edit or adjust RDO hours to an employee's RDO entitlement, this can be done via an edit on the employee's profile, as any other entitlement can.
 

To update an employee's RDO balance: 

1. From the quick menu, navigate to People > Approved People, and select the employee.
2. From the employee profile, navigate to Employee Card > Employment Type > Entitlements.

3.  Select the edit icon (pencil) to edit RDO.

   

4. Apply your updates:
   • Balance - Update the RDO balance.
   • Delete - Select Delete from profile to delete. You will be prompted that any remaining balances will be deleted and cannot be recovered. 
5. Save your changes by selecting the tick icon. Then refresh your page. 

  Hot tip: After updating an employee's RDO balance, navigate to Payroll > Pay and reprocess any draft payslips to apply the update.

Unlike other leave entitlements, RDOs cannot be redeemed with a leave application or in approved shifts. Instead, these will need to be redeemed through a payslip edit (draft payslips) or adjustment (generated payslips), ensuring a more secure and reliable process.

  Hot tip: To assist in communicating an RDO redemption to your payroll team, we advise using shift comments when approving shifts, as these can be exported to CSV for easier viewing. 
 

To pay or update RDO on a payslip:

1. Navigate to Payroll > Pay, locate the payslip and select Edit or Create Adjustment from the dropdown menu.
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the position section to locate RDO. 
3. This section manages both RDO accruals and redemption for this payslip. From here, apply your updates:
   • Method - This is the payout method you can choose from 2 options:
     • Redeem - This will be the default for RDO and is used for standard RDO redemption. 

     • Cash-out - This will cash out all accrued RDO. 

       

         Please note: Unlike other leave entitlements, RDO does not provide a termination payout option within the payslip edit screen. RDO must be paid through the ETP process and cannot be processed through a standard payslip edit.

   • Hours - Specify the number of hours to be redeemed. When cashing out, this defaults to all accrued RDOs. 
   • Rates - The hourly rate being redeemed. By default, this will be the employee's base rate. 
   • Amount - The total value of the RDO being paid. This field cannot be edited. 
   • Accrued - Displays the hours of accrued RDO in the pay period. Edit this field to update the RDO accrual. 
4. Select Save to apply changes.

The termination process for employees with accrued RDO differs from that of standard leave entitlements. While unused leave balances can be paid out as part of the termination process, RDO must be handled separately and cannot be included in the employee's termination pay.

The sections below outline the key differences and required steps when terminating an employee with accrued RDO.

• Termination workflow – During the leave payout step of the termination workflow, you will notice that RDO does not provide a payment option. Instead, a warning will display advising that RDO must be paid via an Employment Termination Payment (ETP).

  

• Process the final pay – Complete the employee’s final standard pay first. This ensures that any RDO accrued in the final pay period is correctly included before calculating the payment. 
• Calculate the RDO liability for ETP – Use the RDO Report to confirm the employee’s RDO balance. You will then need to calculate the required ETP components (including applicable tax treatment and any non-taxable super where relevant). 
  
    Please note: Our team cannot advise on which code to use. For more information on selecting Life Benefit or Death Benefit, read this helpful ATO document on ETP reporting. 
• Process the ETP – Once calculated, process the Employment Termination Payment and submit the ETP reporting packet to the ATO.
• Archive the profile – The archive date is set during the termination workflow, and the employee profile will automatically be archived. This process does not automatically zero out RDO balances. If required, you can delete the RDO from their profile before archiving, particularly if the employee may be rehired in the future.

For your reporting needs, we offer the RDO Accrual Report. This report allows you to view your employees' current accrual balance (in hours and dollar value) for RDO per Operation and Award.
 

To generate the RDO Accrual Report:

1. From the quick menu, navigate to Reports > Financial.
2. Under Accruals & Liabilities, select RDO Accrual.
3. The RDO Accrual Report will automatically generate to show all RDO balances.  However, you can filter this report by applying the following filter options:
   • Operations - To filter for a specific venue/ client. 
   • Candidates (Employees) - To search for a specific employee. 
   • Awards - To search for all employees under a specific Award. 

  Hot tip: This report cannot be exported. You can export your employee's RDO balances from the People Menus > Bulk Actions, and you can even save your selections for quick access.

Can my employees see their RDO balance and submit RDO applications in the Employee App?

Because of the distinctive nature of RDOs within the platform, your employees cannot view or apply to redeem RDOs from Time Off in the Employee App.

However, employees can check their current RDO balance from their most recent payslips.

Do RDO hours accrue when redeeming an RDO accrual or leave hours?

RDO is accrued when an employee's ordinary hours per day exceeds a specified number (usually 7.6 hours). As RDO accrual hours are not OTE hours, an employe will not accrue RDO hours if they redeem 8 hours of RDO. The same occurs with leave entitlements, RDO hours will not accrue.

As RDO is redeemed via a payslip edit, it does not automatically accrue. 

I have redeemed RDO hours on a payslip. Why haven't the leave accruals been updated?

When redeeming RDO on a payslip, the totals (including other leave accruals), do not automatically update. 

To update the payslip details such as leave accruals, select Calculate Totals once the RDO redemption has been applied. 

Can RDOs be added to a shift in Approve Shifts?

Unfortunately, RDOs cannot be added when approving shifts. 

If an employee requires an RDO redemption, we suggest leaving a shift comment to notify your payroll team.

Can my Admin Users submit a leave application for an RDO on behalf of an employee?

Unfortunately, RDOs cannot be submitted as a leave application and instead, they are redeemed via payslip edit. 

If an employee requires an RDO redemption, we suggest leaving a shift comment, in Approve Shifts to notify your payroll team.

Can RDOs be accrued separately against multiple positions?

No, RDOs will accrue against each Operation the shifts have been approved for, regardless of which positions accrued the RDO.

Can RDO be paid at different position rates?

RDOs are automatically paid from the employee's primary position (permanents), and the position selected for all leave entitlements (casuals).

If your employee is required to be paid at a different rate, their rate can be edited via payslip edit. 

Why can't I see RDO in my leave report?

RDOs are not included in the leave reports. In your platform there are 2 ways to view an employee's RDO balance:

• Using the RDO Accrual Report
• Exporting RDO balances from the people menus. 

For further reading on RDO reporting please refer to the "RDO Accrual report" section above. 

My employee has multiple RDO balances on their profile. To redeem all at once, can I simply enter the total amount on the payslip?

Because RDOs are accrued per Operation, if an employee wishes to redeem their cumulative total in one period, these totals must be added individually on the employee's payslip by selecting + Add Position and entering the associated Operation with the balance. You will need to repeat this for all RDO-associated Operations on the employee's profile.