Introduction

We understand that things come up from time to time, however, in line with Hireup’s commitment to ensure a high level of continuous care to our community, it is important that all bookings are either rescheduled or cancelled in advance and in accordance with Hireup’s Statement on Cancellations. This includes communicating promptly and effectively about changes to availability or scheduled bookings. 

Principles

We create an environment that fosters a shared responsibility between Support Workers, Clients, Account Managers and Hireup.  This responsibility might look differently for each person, but at its core is a commitment to ensure that our Clients' needs are being looked after whilst also ensuring our Support Workers are able to fulfill their work obligations.

This shared responsibility includes:

• Being flexible when there are unplanned or unexpected changes that may come up from time to time.
• Ensuring all booking obligations are honoured.
• Providing adequate notice when there is a change to a confirmed booking, where it is reasonable to do so.
• Exploring rescheduling options as a first step and prior to cancelling a booking.
• Ensuring that the minimum notice period is provided if a booking needs to be cancelled, where it is reasonable to do so.
• Communicating all changes to bookings on the platform wherever reasonable, so that both your Client and Hireup have a record of such changes  

Cancellation Process 

Once a booking has been confirmed, there is an obligation on both parties to ensure the booking goes ahead. If either party needs to change or cancel the booking, they should:

• Make contact with the other party at least 48 hours prior to the start of the shift, unless exceptional circumstances arise (such as an emergency, illness or injury for example). This contact should be through the Hireup platform where reasonable. 
• Ask if there is a mutually suitable time to reschedule the booking if appropriate.  If there is a rescheduling option, update the booking on the platform as soon as the reschedule agreement is made.  This can be done by updating the date and time of the booking.
• If a Support Worker cancels a booking for any reason before the scheduled start time, regardless of the notice, they are not entitled to payment from the Client.
  • For bookings interrupted by incidents, relationship breakdowns, or similar issues, the cancellation must be escalated to the Hireup Team for subsequent review.
• Support Workers can choose not to claim payment for cancellations if they prefer.

12+ hours notice before the shift

•  Where either party cancels a scheduled shift with more than 12 hours’ notice, the booking should be cancelled in the system with no charges applied.

2 - 12 hours notice before the shift

• If a client cancels with 2-12 hours' notice, do not cancel the system booking. Adjust it to a two-hour shift to ensure the Support Worker's minimum payment. The adjustment to the booking can be done by:

1. Ask the Support Worker to edit the booking so that it becomes a two-hour shift after the booking completion date and to note ‘late cancellation’ in the shift notes on the booking for future reference and invoicing purposes.
2. Approve the shift as usual to process the payment.

Less than 2 hours notice before the shift

• When a client provides less than 2 hours' notice (including late changes during a booking), the Support Worker is entitled to be paid for the entire shift in line with the Hireup Statement on Cancellations. If a booking is cancelled this way, it must not be removed from the system and must be submitted by the Support Worker as normal, making references to the late cancellation in the shift notes.

Hireup may request reasonable additional information from Support Workers with respect to a cancellation, and Support Workers are required to provide it when requested.  

For further information on applicable charges and payments refer to the tables below.

Charges and payments for cancellations:

If a Client intends to cancel a booking, the following charges may apply:

Support Workers will be entitled to the following payments for cancellations by Clients: