EBA clauses

Consecutive shift rules across pay periods, done right.

EBA night-shift and consecutive-shift rules count sequences of shifts — and the sequence doesn't stop because the pay week ends. Generic rule engines only see one pay period at a time, so cross-boundary sequences get paid wrong. Project Payroll tracks shift history across periods and applies the right rate automatically.

15 minutes, your EBA, no sales script.

The problem

The pay period boundary problem

Say the pay week closes Tuesday night. A worker starts nights on Sunday and works five in a row to Thursday. The agreement pays the higher rate from the third consecutive night. Two of those nights sit in one pay run and three in the next, so an engine that only reads the current period counts one night, then counts one night again, and never reaches three.

The worker did five nights in a row. They should be paid for five nights in a row, whatever week the cutoff lands in.

The inputs

Why start and finish times matter

Sequence rules need actual shift times, not bulk hours. "38 hours" cannot tell you whether a shift qualified as night work, or whether two shifts were consecutive. That is why our timesheets capture real start and finish times from site.

  • Real times, not totals

    Every shift arrives with a start, a finish and a break, already approved on site.
  • Night work is defined by the clause

    The engine tests each shift against the agreement's own definition of a night shift.

The fix

How cross-period tracking works

Shift history is kept per worker, not per pay run. When a run is interpreted, the engine looks back past the period start to find where the sequence began, counts it properly, and applies the rate the clause calls for. The count and the clause are stored with the run.

Counting the shift sequence…

  • One sequence, two pay runs

    The boundary is a reporting line, not a reset.
  • Mapped during the EBA build

    We work out which sequences your agreement counts before you go live.

Shift rule questions

Does this need a special timesheet system?

It needs start and finish times. Our site timesheets capture them natively, so the sequence rules have something to count.

Which rules does it cover?

Consecutive-shift loadings, night-shift sequences, and similar span rules in your agreement — mapped during the EBA build.

Reviewed August 2026. General information, not legal advice.

Your agreement

Does your EBA have this clause?

We run it automatically. Send us your agreement and we'll tell you which clauses your current payroll can't handle.

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