A venue that trades until 3am: how late-night precinct openings change the roster for casuals and managers

From Wednesday to Saturday, House of Bungalow on Foveaux Street in Surry Hills trades for 20 hours: the cafe opens at 7am and the downstairs lounge, Below, runs to 3am. Those four dark hours look like a handover. On the award they're a wall, because a permanent employee who closes can't open at ordinary rates.

Short version: under the Restaurant Award, a 5pm to 3am close costs $340.74 for a casual Level 2 on a Wednesday and $436.32 for a casual Level 3 on a Sunday. Minimum rates from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2026. General information, not legal or financial advice.

One building, three rosters

That's 118.5 trading hours a week. Two overlaps, 11:30am to 3pm and 5pm to 11pm, are where staff can move between concepts. The 3am to 7am seam is where they can't. We don't know how Bungalow Collective rosters its staff, but its published hours show what a late-night venue roster has to solve: three shift patterns, and cover that doesn't transfer between them.

Check which award covers the site first

The Restaurant Award (MA000119) covers restaurants, night clubs and cafes, but not hotels. The Fair Work Ombudsman says a stand-alone nightclub falls under it, while a nightclub run by a hospitality-industry business such as a hotel falls under the Hospitality Award (MA000009). Our award guide covers the edge cases, and the gap matters most after dark.

What the 5pm to 3am close costs

Here's one casual on the Restaurant Award, with an unpaid meal break from 9:30pm to 10pm, so 9.5 paid hours. Each hour belongs to the day it falls on, so midnight can change the rate.

Hourly columns show Level 2. Put three Level 2s and two Level 3s on the close and the same crew costs $1,724.78 on a Wednesday and $2,009.16 on a Sunday, before super. Level 3 drives that jump: at midnight on Saturday a Level 3 goes from $41.96 to $48.95 while a Level 2 doesn't move. Under the Hospitality Award, the Level 2's Sunday shift is $422.85.

The rest rule that splits your crew

Both awards give full-time and part-time staff 10 hours between ordinary shifts, or 8 at a roster changeover. Worked against this site's hours, it looks like this:

Split shift cover hits a similar limit: the spread is capped at 12 hours for full-time and part-time staff, so someone who starts at 11:30am is done by 11:30pm. Casuals sit outside the 10-hour break, but not outside your safety duty. SafeWork NSW lists shift and night work as causes of fatigue, and a 3am finish before a morning start is exactly that. On the Restaurant Award a casual also tops out at 12 hours a day before overtime.

Build three pools and one seam

1. Sort everyone into day, mid or late by real availability, then roster each pool on its own.
2. Cross-train the overlaps. Keeping a restaurant casual on from 11pm into Below is one continuous shift. Calling someone in fresh carries its own 2-hour minimum.
3. Check the level when someone crosses. Under Restaurant Award clause 18.8, 2 or more hours of higher-classification duties pays the higher rate for the whole day.
4. Name the first call for every late shift before the roster goes up, from the late pool only. Our guide to the four ways to cover a dropped shift prices the options.
5. Price the pack-down. The loading is per hour or part of an hour, so 30 minutes past 3am on a weekday morning is about $21 a head. It also takes a 9:30pm break past 5 continuous hours, which triggers an extra paid 20-minute rest, so roster the break at 10pm if your crew finishes at 3:30am.
6. Run the morning-after check on every permanent who closes, then look at casuals for fatigue.
7. Write down how the 3am crew gets home. It can be an award cost under the Hospitality Award and a retention problem under either.

Where Shiftly fits

Shiftly is free rostering and award-aware timesheets, with both of these awards supported. It's a calculation tool that helps estimate what each close should cost, and you stay responsible for checking it. The roster warns on overlapping shifts and marked unavailability. Rest between shifts is still your check. It's also the roster that fills itself. When a late pool runs dry, you can offer the shift to the on-demand network, available along the east coast of Australia, where the venue engages an independent contractor for that shift. You pay the hours, 12% super, an 8% service fee plus GST and a $1 processing fee plus GST. Get started with Shiftly.

Frequently asked questions

Can a casual close at 3am and open at 7am?

The award's 10-hour break doesn't apply to casuals, so it won't stop you. Your work health and safety duty still applies, and SafeWork NSW says being awake for 20 hours impairs performance about as much as a 0.1 blood alcohol reading. Don't roster it.

Do casuals get a loading after midnight?

Monday to Friday, yes: $4.42 an hour on top of the casual rate under both awards. Saturday and Sunday hours take the day's penalty instead, and only the higher one applies. So a Friday close pays Saturday rates from midnight.

Which award covers a venue with a cafe, restaurant and late bar?

Usually the Restaurant Award if it's a stand-alone restaurant business, and the Hospitality Award if it's run by a hotel or similar. An enterprise agreement or a registered club changes the answer, so confirm coverage with the Fair Work Ombudsman before you price a roster.