Nonsense like duty lists (5)
I believe the answer is:
rotas
'duty lists' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'nonsense like' is the wordplay.
'nonsense' becomes 'rot' (I've seen this before).
'like' becomes 'as'.
'rot'+'as'='ROTAS'
(Other definitions for rotas that I've seen before include "Cycles of duty" , "Rolls" , "they tell us when to work" , "Duty lists" , "Rosters" .)