Workforce management glossary

A crewing structure that splits the workforce into four crews, or panels. At any moment two panels are on site — one on day shift, one on nights — while the other two are on their break. It's the standard way to keep a 24/7 mining operation continuously covered with even-time swings.

Related: Crew coverage planner

A single yearly wage that rolls overtime, penalties, allowances and loadings into one figure instead of paying them line by line. Under many awards the employer must still record actual hours worked and reconcile at least annually — if the salary paid less than the award would have, the gap must be back-paid.

Related: Time and attendance guide

A rostering feature that fills open shifts automatically from live availability, matching workers by qualification, compliance status and hours remaining. Rules-based auto-fill is standard today; fully AI-generated rosters remain mostly roadmap material across the industry.

Related: Automatic scheduling explained

Replacing an absent worker at short notice. Good rostering software answers the 5am backfill question in seconds: who is qualified, compliant, within safe hours and not already working — and notifies them through the app rather than a call-around.

Basic Fatigue Management and Advanced Fatigue Management — NHVR accreditation levels that allow heavy vehicle operators more flexible hours than standard, in exchange for explicit obligations to schedule within the limits and keep records proving it.

Bus-in bus-out — crews are bused to site from a nearby town or park-and-ride, either daily or at the start and end of each swing. The bus schedule effectively sets shift start times: if the bus leaves at 4:40am, that is when the roster really starts.

Related: Mobilisation software guide

Being called in to work outside a rostered shift, usually while on-call. Awards and agreements commonly guarantee a minimum payment — often three or four hours — even if the fix takes twenty minutes, and a 2 am call-out can knock a worker out of the next day's shift under fatigue rules.

The accommodation village that houses a remote site's workforce — rooms, mess, gym, wet mess — usually run by a catering contractor. Rooms are a hard constraint on rostering: a swing can only be as big as the beds available, so roster changes and room allocation have to move together.

Related: FIFO flights and accommodation

The pathway for a casual employee to become permanent. Under the Fair Work Act's employee choice rules, an eligible casual employed at least six months (twelve in a small business) who believes they no longer fit the casual definition can notify their employer they want to convert — and the employer must respond in writing within 21 days.

An extra percentage on top of the base hourly rate — typically 25% under most awards — paid to casual employees to compensate for missing out on paid leave, redundancy pay and notice. It's the premium an employer pays for a flexible, no-guaranteed-hours arrangement.

The Heavy Vehicle National Law principle that everyone who influences a transport task — schedulers, consignors, loaders, managers, not just drivers — holds a duty to prevent breaches. A roster that pressures drivers into non-compliant hours implicates the business that built it.

The periodic health assessment required for workers at Queensland coal mines under the state's Coal Mine Workers' Health Scheme. It typically includes a chest X-ray and lung function testing, and it must be current before anyone steps on site — so its expiry date is worth tracking well ahead of mobilisation.

Related: Tracking credentials and expiries

The umbrella term for the tickets, licences, VOCs and inductions that qualify a worker for specific tasks and sites. Rostering against competencies — not just availability — is what separates field workforce platforms from generic schedulers.

The general form of the fatigue gate: any check that stops a non-compliant booking before it is confirmed — an expired ticket, a missing site induction, a lapsed medical. Gates turn compliance from an audit finding into a default.

Work inside a space not designed for people to occupy — tanks, silos, pits, vessels — where the atmosphere or contents can kill quickly. In Australia it's a high-risk activity requiring an entry permit, atmosphere testing, a trained standby person, and current confined-space training for everyone involved.

Related: Track tickets and training

Training to enter and work in confined spaces — tanks, pits, silos and vessels where the atmosphere or access makes rescue hard. Usually the unit RIIWHS202 or an MSMPER equivalent, and always paired with a signed entry permit for each job. Most sites expect a refresher every couple of years.

Australian site slang for a meal break, and the room you take it in (the crib room). Crib breaks are part of the shift structure that fatigue and award rules count.

A fixed rate paid per day worked rather than per hour — common for subcontractors and specialist trades. Day-rate work still generates record-keeping obligations, and no-shows are usually costed in day rates.

Winding a crew off a completed job: return travel, equipment returned and condition-checked, accommodation released, records closed out. The equipment half is where untracked gear quietly disappears.

Drive-in drive-out — workers commute to site in their own vehicles rather than flying, typically where the site is within a few hours of a regional centre. Cheaper than FIFO for the employer, but the drive itself adds to fatigue, so long commutes bookending twelve-hour shifts need managing.

Related: Fatigue management software

A worker with a dogging (DG) high-risk work licence, qualified to sling loads and direct crane movements — including when the load is out of the operator's view. The dogman, not the crane operator, selects and inspects the lifting gear, which is why crane crews are rostered as a unit.

A transportable, prefabricated accommodation unit — the standard room in Australian mining camps and construction site compounds. Usually a single room with a bed, desk, ensuite and air-conditioning. 'Donga' can also mean any demountable site building, from first-aid rooms to crib huts.

Screening workers for alcohol and drugs — typically a breathalyser plus urine or oral fluid testing. Most Australian mining and construction sites run pre-employment, random, post-incident and for-cause testing under a site drug and alcohol policy, with a non-negative result meaning stand-down until a laboratory confirms or clears it.

The camp dining hall where meals are served and no alcohol is allowed — breakfast, dinner, and the crib area where workers pack their own food for shift. A 'dry camp' extends the rule to the whole village, with no alcohol permitted anywhere on site.

A four-week rotating pattern of 12-hour shifts run with four crews, best known for ending each cycle with seven consecutive days off. The trade-off is a heavy cycle: it includes one 72-hour week and blocks of three or four night shifts in a row, so fatigue management matters.

A workplace deal negotiated between an employer and its employees, often with union involvement, that sets pay and conditions in place of the award. The Fair Work Commission must approve it, checking covered employees are better off overall than under the relevant award. Common on large mining and construction projects.

A swing pattern with equal time on and off — commonly 7/7 or 14/14. Popular with workers for its predictability; the trade-off is that it requires roughly double the headcount to keep a position continuously filled.

Proof you can operate an elevating work platform. Boom-type EWPs with a boom of 11 metres or more need a WP high-risk work licence; scissor lifts and smaller booms are covered by nationally recognised training such as the EWPA Yellow Card. Sites usually want a recent verification of competency as well as the ticket.

A marked area people must stay out of while a hazard is live — under a suspended load, around operating mobile plant, near an open excavation or live powerlines. Zones are set by distance rules or site policy and enforced with barricades, signage, or a spotter controlling access.

A rostering control that checks a worker's accumulated hours against fatigue policy at the moment a shift is booked — and flags or blocks the booking if it would breach the rules. The difference between a fatigue report and a fatigue gate is discovering Monday's breach versus preventing it on Friday.

The systematic control of tiredness as a workplace hazard — through shift-length limits, rest breaks between shifts, caps on consecutive days and night work, and monitoring of cumulative hours. Under Australia's model WHS laws fatigue is a foreseeable risk employers must manage.

Related: Fatigue management software

The specific set of limits a business rosters within: maximum daily and weekly hours, minimum rest between shifts, consecutive-day caps and rolling-window counts. Policies often layer — a business-wide default, tightened per client or site where contracts demand stricter limits.

Related: Layered fatigue policies

A work arrangement where employees fly to a remote site for a multi-day swing, live in camp accommodation, and fly home for rest periods. DIDO (drive-in drive-out) and BIBO (bus-in bus-out) are the road-based equivalents.

Related: FIFO rostering software

The lowest rung of workplace injury classification — a cut, sprain or minor burn treated on site with first aid, after which the worker carries on with normal duties. FAIs don't move the headline injury rates, but a creeping FAI count is often the earliest sign that something on site has changed.

Being physically and mentally capable of doing a shift safely — not impaired by fatigue, alcohol, drugs, injury, illness or acute stress. On Australian sites it's a shared obligation: workers must present fit, and employers shouldn't roster people into shifts their accumulated hours say they can't safely work.

Related: Fatigue management software

A roster where each worker keeps the same shift block permanently — days only, or nights only. Workers get predictability and their body clocks get a routine, but permanent night crews carry a cumulative fatigue load, and someone has to actually want the night slots.

A high-risk work licence for forklift operation: LF covers standard counterbalance and reach trucks, LO covers order-picking forklifts where the operator rises with the load. Issued by state regulators after training and assessment, recognised Australia-wide, and renewed every five years — one of the most commonly required tickets on any site.

A brand-new starter on site, often literally wearing a green hard hat or hi-vis sticker so everyone knows they're new. Many sites keep workers 'green' for a set number of shifts — buddied with an experienced hand and restricted from certain tasks — before they can be rostered as a full crew member.

Related: Onboarding field workers

An enterprise agreement made for a genuinely new project or venture before any employees are hired, negotiated between the employer and the relevant unions. Common on new mines and major construction jobs, where pay and conditions need to be locked in before recruitment starts.

Controls for when heat, humidity, exertion and PPE combine to push core body temperature up — hydration, shaded rest breaks, task rotation and shifting heavy work out of the hottest part of the day. On northern Australian sites it's a year-round rostering question, not just a summer one.

A state-issued licence required for specified high-risk work — operating cranes, forklifts, rigging, scaffolding and similar. Expiry tracking matters: an expired HRWL discovered at the gate stands a crew down.

The business a labour hire worker is placed with. Provider and host hold overlapping WHS duties: the host controls the site, but the provider must still verify the worker is inducted, licensed and fit for that specific placement.

Sharing a camp room (or bed) between workers on opposite swings — one flies out, the other flies in the same day. A softer variant is 'motelling', where workers get a different room each swing instead of a permanent one. Both stretch camp capacity, and both are consistently unpopular with crews.

A shift changeover done at the machine rather than back at the crib room or car park — the incoming operator takes over the dozer or haul truck where it sits, so the equipment barely stops. Standard practice in mining, where an idle truck through a full shift change costs real production.

A permit required before any work that produces flames, sparks or heat — welding, grinding, oxy cutting — outside a designated hot work area. It typically mandates a fire watch, clearing combustibles, and re-checking the area after the job, because many hot-work fires start after the tools are packed up.

Heavy vehicle driver's licence classes: Heavy Rigid (HR) for rigid trucks and buses with three or more axles, Heavy Combination (HC) for a prime mover and semi-trailer, and Multi Combination (MC) for B-doubles and road trains. Standard requirements on mining and civil jobs — HC and MC each need at least 12 months on a qualifying lower class first.

An elected worker representative under Australian WHS law who raises health and safety issues on behalf of their work group. Trained HSRs carry real legal powers, including issuing provisional improvement notices and, in certain circumstances, directing that unsafe work cease.

Incident Cause Analysis Method — an investigation framework widely used in Australian mining, construction and heavy industry after serious incidents. Rather than stopping at 'operator error', ICAM traces contributing factors back through workplace conditions to organisational failures such as rostering, training and supervision.

Site- or client-specific training a worker must complete before starting work at a location. Inductions are site-specific by nature — a worker cleared for one client's site may be missing the induction for the next — which is why they belong on the compliance profile with expiry tracking.

Isolating plant from every energy source — electrical, hydraulic, stored pressure, gravity — and locking the isolation point so it can't be re-energised while people work on it. Each worker fits their own personal lock and tag, and the equipment stays dead until every lock comes off.

Planning and monitoring high-risk drives — long distances, remote roads, post-shift fatigue — usually through a journey management plan setting the route, rest stops, check-in times and what happens if a driver misses one. Standard practice wherever the drive to site is riskier than the site itself.

Related: Fatigue software for transport

A short written breakdown of a task into its steps, the hazards at each step, and the controls that make it safe — completed before work starts. Called a JHA (job hazard analysis) on some sites. Usually done at crew level for tasks a generic procedure doesn't fully cover.

Supplying workers you employ to work under a host business's direction. Licensed in several states (Victoria, Queensland, South Australia), with providers required to demonstrate workplace, tax and super compliance — and hosts exposed if they use unlicensed providers.

Related: Labour hire software

Living Away From Home Allowance — paid when a worker must temporarily live away from their usual home for work, covering extra accommodation and food costs. Common on distant construction projects and long mobilisations; it can attract concessional tax treatment when strict conditions are met, which is why payroll treats it differently from a normal allowance.

Related: FIFO travel and accommodation

The most experienced worker in a small crew, running the job while still on the tools — the link between the crew and its supervisor. Many awards and enterprise agreements pay a leading hand allowance, usually scaled by how many people the leading hand is responsible for.

Industry shorthand for swing patterns designed around retention rather than maximum site hours — shorter swings, more even time on and off, more weekends at home. Australian miners have been moving toward them as labour tightens, accepting bigger crew numbers as the price of keeping people.

Related: Swing calendar tool

A lost time injury (LTI) is a work injury that keeps someone away for at least one full shift or rostered day. LTIFR turns that into a rate — lost time injuries per million hours worked. It's the headline safety number on most Australian tenders and prequalification questionnaires.

A generic mining safety induction long used across Western Australia, delivered under the Mining and Resource Contractors Safety Training Association banner so contractors didn't repeat the same baseline training at every site. Many WA operators now run their own inductions, but 'MARCSTA' survives as shorthand for a general mining induction card.

Related: Onboarding for mining projects

The shortest shift an employer must pay for when someone is called in to work — commonly two to four hours for casuals and part-timers, depending on the award. If a worker turns up and the shift is cut short, they're still paid the minimum, which is why short call-ins can cost more than they look.

Everything between winning work and crews starting it: assigning people, verifying site-specific compliance, booking travel and accommodation, allocating equipment and confirming attendance. Any weak link in the chain stops the whole job.

Related: Workforce mobilisation software

A legal instrument setting minimum pay and conditions for an industry or occupation — including overtime triggers, penalty rates, allowances and rest requirements. Which award applies, and when hours were worked, together determine what a shift must be paid.

Related: Fair Work compliance for shift workers

A work injury that needs a doctor or other medical professional beyond simple first aid, but doesn't cost the worker a full shift. It sits between a first aid injury and a lost time injury in the reporting hierarchy, and it counts toward TRIFR.

The designated assembly area where everyone on site gathers during an emergency so a headcount can be checked against the sign-in register. A muster only works if the site knows exactly who is on it — accurate sign-on data matters as much as the signage.

Related: Workforce management software

An incident that didn't injure anyone or damage anything — but easily could have. Near misses are reported and investigated because they're free lessons: the same failure with slightly different timing is a recordable injury. Sites with strong near-miss reporting tend to have fewer serious incidents.

A shift worked mostly between late evening and dawn. Under most Australian awards it attracts a shift loading or penalty rates, and it carries the highest fatigue risk of any shift because it runs against the body clock — the reason fatigue policies commonly cap consecutive nights and mandate rest after a night block.

Related: Fatigue management software

A rostered worker who fails to arrive for a shift. On a construction or mining site a single no-show costs the missing worker's day rate plus the productivity of the crew waiting on them — which is why confirmation tracking and live backfill matter more in field industries than almost anywhere else.

A roster item that isn't worked time — flights, drive days, camp nights, R&R. Putting non-work shifts on the same schedule as work shifts is what lets schedulers see travel conflicts and lets fatigue rules count travel against rest windows.

Related: Flights & accommodation in the roster

Being rostered as available outside ordinary hours — reachable, fit for duty, and able to get to site if needed. Awards and agreements commonly pay an on-call allowance for the availability itself, whether or not the phone rings; any actual call-out is paid on top.

Bringing a new worker into the business: documents, tax and super details, licences, inductions and equipment. For field industries the test of onboarding is site-readiness — a starter isn't onboarded until they can legally and safely walk onto the job.

Related: Onboarding field workers

The two main methods of Australian mining. Open cut (open pit) digs ore from a surface pit with drills, excavators and haul trucks; underground reaches it through shafts and declines. The tickets, inductions and roles rarely transfer directly between the two, which matters when redeploying crews.

A shift that has been created but not yet assigned to a worker — or one published to a group so eligible workers can claim it. Open-shift broadcasting is the fastest way to fill last-minute gaps without a phone tree.

A 14-day cycle of 12-hour shifts in a 2 on, 2 off, 3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off pattern — also called the 2-2-3. It averages 42 hours a week and delivers a three-day weekend every second week, which is why 24/7 plants and control rooms like it.

Related: Compare swing patterns

Higher pay rates for working outside ordinary hours — nights, weekends, public holidays — set by the applicable award or agreement. Accurate start and finish times are what make penalty calculations defensible.

A formal authorisation required before high-risk activities — hot work, confined space entry, excavation, work near live services — can begin. The permit spells out the controls, who is authorised, and the time window, and is signed off by a supervisor or permit issuer before tools come out.

Related: Site compliance checklist

The comparison between rostered hours and actual timesheet hours, per shift. It is the number award-compliance checks, cost control and payroll accuracy all depend on — and the first thing that becomes invisible when rosters and timesheets live in separate systems.

The location a worker is deemed to be employed from — usually the airport or town where their commute to site begins. It determines who pays for travel and where the employer's obligations start, which is why FIFO job ads specify 'point of hire: Perth' rather than the site itself.

A medical assessment completed before a worker starts — commonly hearing, vision, spirometry, musculoskeletal testing and drug and alcohol screening, matched to the physical demands of the role. On mining and construction projects it's effectively a mobilisation gate: no current medical, no site access.

Related: Onboarding field workers

A short inspection completed before using plant or starting a shift — equipment condition, safety controls, fitness for work. On paper these get skipped or lost; as digital forms they are timestamped, searchable and tied to the worker, machine and job.

Related: Digital forms for field teams

Aspects of work that can cause psychological harm — high job demands, poor support, bullying, isolation, fatigue and traumatic exposures. Australian WHS regulators now expect psychosocial risks to be managed as seriously as physical ones, which puts rosters, workloads and FIFO isolation squarely in scope.

The off-swing rest period in a FIFO cycle — the '1' in a 2/1 roster. Protected rest is a fatigue control, not just a perk: swing patterns are assessed on the recovery time they build in.

A paid day off accrued by working slightly longer hours on other days — for example working 40 hours a week but being paid for 38, banking the difference. In construction, RDOs are often fixed on an industry calendar so the whole site is off the same day.

Related: Roster templates guide

A licensed worker who moves and erects plant, structural steel and precast beyond basic load-slinging. Rigging is a high-risk work licence with three classes — basic (RB), intermediate (RI) and advanced (RA) — each a prerequisite for the next, with a dogging licence required before any of them.

A workplace right under the Fair Work Act letting employees refuse to monitor or answer work contact outside their working hours unless refusing is unreasonable. It has applied to all employers, including small business, since August 2025 — so rosters, on-call arrangements and after-hours messaging practices need to reflect it.

Related: Shift messaging guide

Units of competency from the Resources and Infrastructure Industry (RII) training package — the source of most mining and civil tickets, from working safely at heights (RIIWHS204) to plant operation. Job ads and site requirements quote RII codes directly, and a worker's unit transcript travels with them between employers.

Related: Mining onboarding software

Run-of-mine — ore as it comes out of the pit, before crushing or processing. The ROM pad is the stockpile area where haul trucks dump it ahead of the crusher. In job ads and radio chatter, 'ROM' usually means that physical location rather than the material.

The planned schedule of who works which shifts, where and when. In workforce management software the roster is the live source of truth that timesheets, fatigue checks and notifications all hang off — as opposed to a static spreadsheet that is out of date the moment it's emailed.

Related: Rostering software

The length of time before a roster pattern repeats itself — one week for a simple Monday-to-Friday crew, a fortnight or longer for compound shift patterns. It matters for pay: awards and enterprise agreements typically average ordinary hours over the full cycle, so a heavy week can still be ordinary hours if the cycle balances out.

A saved shift pattern — a standard week, a swing, a crew rotation — that can be applied to a new period in one step instead of rebuilding the roster shift by shift. Templates are how rostering software turns hours of manual roster building into minutes.

Related: Roster templates guide

A roster where workers move through different shift times — days, afternoons, nights — over the cycle rather than holding one permanent slot. It shares the unpopular shifts around fairly, but every changeover has a fatigue cost; rotating forward (days to afternoons to nights) is generally easier on the body than rotating backwards.

Shorthand for Australia's regulated labour-hire rules: where the Fair Work Commission makes an order, labour-hire workers must be paid at least what they would earn under the host employer's enterprise agreement for the same work. A major cost consideration for mining and resources contractors since the first orders took effect in November 2024.

Related: Labour-hire software guide

A rostering model where workers pick their own shifts from a published pool, inside rules the business sets — qualifications, coverage minimums, fatigue limits. Done well it lifts engagement and fill rates; done without guardrails it means everyone picks Tuesday day shift and nobody picks Saturday nights.

Related: Rostering software

Tracking whether each worker has actually viewed and accepted a published shift. Publishing a roster is not the same as filling it: seen/unseen status surfaces the worker who never opened the app while there is still time to act, which is how no-shows get prevented rather than discovered.

Related: Reducing no-shows

A planned maintenance window where a plant or processing facility stops production so major work can be done — often called a turnaround in oil and gas. Shutdowns compress months of work into days and can double a site's headcount overnight, mostly with short-notice contractors and labour-hire crews.

Related: Subcontractor management software

The ATO's payroll reporting regime: employers report salaries, tax and super to the ATO every pay run, directly from payroll software. STP means the gap between what your timesheets say and what payroll reports is visible to the regulator by default.

Related: Payroll integration

Permission to physically enter a site, usually enforced at a gate or turnstile by swipe card or biometrics. Access typically depends on a valid induction, current tickets and sometimes a drug-and-alcohol test — meaning a worker can be rostered, flown in and still turned away at the gate if a credential has expired.

Related: Credential tracking guide

An extra payment — usually a flat hourly amount — for working on a particular site or project, compensating for its conditions. Common in commercial construction EBAs, where the rate often scales with the value of the project, and on remote resources sites.

Whether a specific worker can legally and safely start at a specific site on a specific date — inductions current, tickets valid for the full deployment, medicals and clearances in place. Site-readiness is per-site, not general: it's the check mobilisation software runs before anyone gets on a plane.

A grid of workers against the licences, tickets and competencies their roles require — showing at a glance who is qualified, who is expiring soon and who cannot be put on a task. On well-run sites the matrix drives the roster: if the ticket isn't current, the shift shouldn't be bookable.

Related: Tracking tickets and credentials

One day's work divided into two or more blocks with a long unpaid break between them — common for bus drivers and passenger transport. Many awards call it a broken shift, and typically limit the overall spread of hours or pay an allowance to compensate for a day cut in two.

A dedicated worker whose only job is to watch one specific hazard — reversing plant, a crane load, work near powerlines — and warn or stop the operator before anyone gets hurt. A spotter who is also doing another task isn't a spotter; the role only works with full attention.

The most senior person at a mine, legally accountable for the site's safety and health management system — a statutory role under Queensland and Western Australian mining safety laws. Whoever holds it must be based at or near the mine, which is why the SSE sits at the top of every site contact list and escalation chain.

Sending employees home without pay when they can't be usefully employed for reasons outside the employer's control — an equipment breakdown, industrial action, or a flood that shuts the site. Under the Fair Work Act it's not available for an ordinary downturn in work, and enterprise agreements often add their own conditions.

The default work-and-rest limits for heavy vehicle drivers under the Heavy Vehicle National Law — maximum work and minimum rest counted across multiple periods from 5½ hours to 14 days. Operators wanting more flexibility must be accredited under BFM or AFM.

Related: FRMS for transport

An independent business engaged to perform work, as distinct from a direct employee. Subbies carry their own ABN, insurances and licences — which the engaging business still needs to verify and track — and are best rostered in the same view as employees so coverage and compliance are checked across the whole workforce.

Related: Subcontractor management

A supervisor runs a crew day-to-day — allocating tasks, running prestarts, approving timesheets. A superintendent sits a level up, coordinating several supervisors across a discipline or area and owning the plan, budget and headcount. On big mining and construction jobs, the superintendent decides what gets done this week; the supervisor decides who does it today.

Related: Timesheet approval workflow

A repeating multi-week roster cycle used in FIFO and remote work — for example two weeks on, one week off (2/1) or eight days on, six off (8/6). The 'swing' is one full on-site stint. Crews are usually offset against each other so the site is always covered.

Related: FIFO rostering software

Safe Work Method Statement — a document required for high-risk construction work that sets out the hazards, controls and sequence for a task. Frequently captured and acknowledged digitally as part of site paperwork.

A quick personal risk check done in the minutes before starting a task — typically five steps like stop, look, assess, control, proceed. It lives in a pocket booklet or an app, and it's the last check between the paperwork and the actual work.

A predefined table that says: when this condition is reached, this person acts, and this is what they do. Common for fatigue (hours worked trigger escalating controls), weather, ground movement and gas levels. The point is that the response is decided in advance — not debated at 2am.

Related: Fatigue management software

The capture of start, break and finish times at the point of work. Australian employers must keep time and wage records for seven years in a form that is accurate and not altered after the fact — which paper timesheets and editable spreadsheets struggle to satisfy.

Related: Time & attendance guide

The record of hours actually worked — as distinct from the roster, which records hours planned. In connected platforms timesheets are generated from the roster and adjusted for actual attendance, so supervisors review exceptions instead of re-keying every line.

Related: Digital timesheets

Taking paid time off instead of being paid overtime rates for extra hours worked. Most awards only allow it by written agreement for each occasion, and TOIL that isn't taken within the required period generally has to be paid out at overtime rates.

A short, informal safety briefing held with a crew before work starts — typically covering the day's tasks, hazards and controls. Attendance records are part of the WHS evidence trail.

A worker without a trade qualification who supports tradespeople — fetching materials, prepping the work area, lifting, holding and cleaning up. Known as an offsider on many Australian sites. A common entry point into construction and mining maintenance, and TAs often stack tickets like forklift, EWP and confined space to become more rosterable.

A payment covering the cost or time of getting to and from a job — a daily fares amount, cents per kilometre, or paid travel time to distant sites, depending on the award or agreement. In construction, the daily fares and travel allowance is typically paid regardless of how the worker actually gets there.

A day of a swing consumed by getting to or from site — the flight, bus or drive at either end. Whether travel days are paid, and at what rate, depends on the employment agreement and the worker's point of hire, so rosters need to record them separately from worked shifts.

Related: Swing calendar tool

Total recordable injury frequency rate — fatalities, lost time injuries, restricted work injuries and medical treatment injuries combined, per million hours worked. Broader than LTIFR because injuries count even when no shifts are lost, which makes it harder to flatter and increasingly the number clients actually ask for.

A practical assessment confirming a worker can actually operate specific plant or perform a task competently, regardless of the ticket they hold. Many sites require current VOCs per machine type before allowing operation.

The camp bar — the venue in a mining village where alcohol can be bought and consumed. Most sites cap daily drinks and enforce cut-off times, because everyone at the wet mess is still expected to pass the breathalyser at the gate the next morning.

The general construction induction card required before performing construction work in Australia. One of the baseline credentials checked before a worker can be rostered onto a construction site.

Related: Credential tracking

Australia's harmonised safety framework, adopted as law in most states and territories. It places a primary duty of care on businesses to ensure workers are trained, competent and not exposed to foreseeable risks — including fatigue — so far as is reasonably practicable.

Any task where a person could fall from one level to another — roofs, scaffolds, elevated platforms, open edges. Australian WHS rules require fall risks to be controlled in a set order: eliminate the work at height first, then barriers and platforms, with fall-arrest gear as the last resort.

Related: Track heights qualifications

A site rule requiring a blood alcohol concentration of 0.00 to start work, checked by breathalyser at the gate or through random in-shift testing. It's the norm across Australian mining and major construction — and a big night before an early start can still register well after sunrise.