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This article provides guidelines on the pastoral award package. For more information on this award, please refer to the pastoral award.
What is the Pastoral Award?
The Pastoral Award, is a set of legal minimum employment standards and conditions that apply to employees working in the pastoral industry in Australia.
The award sets out the minimum wage rates, working hours, overtime, annual leave, sick leave, and other entitlements for employees working in various roles within the pastoral industry, such as station hands，piggery workers，dairy operators，poultry workers，
shearers and crutchers.The award is designed to ensure that employees in the pastoral industry are treated fairly and receive reasonable pay and conditions for their work.
Who is covered by the Pastoral Award?
Coverage
The pastoral industry means employers and employees who work in (or connected to) the:
- managing, breeding, rearing or grazing of livestock or poultry
- shearing and crutching of sheep on farms
- classing and pressing of wool on farms
- dairying work
- hatchery work
- sowing, raising or harvesting of broadacre field crops and other crops grown as part of any of the mentioned farms or properties
- treating of land in relation to the work above, or
- clearing, fencing, well sinking, dam sinking or trenching on any farm or property above.
Examples of employees covered by the Pastoral Award include:
- station hands
- piggery workers
- dairy operators
- poultry workers
- shearers and crutchers
- station cooks
The Pastoral Award also extends to labor hire companies and the workers they place with organizations involved in the pastoral sector.
The following are examples of employers who are not covered by the Pastoral Award:
- employers and employees in the wine industry
- sugar farming or sugar cane growing and related activities
- silviculture and afforestation
- any work in or connected with producing or processing fish, aquaculture and marine products
- farming horticultural crops, such as vegetables, fruits, grains, seeds, nuts and flowers, which aren’t mentioned above as a broadacre field crop.
How are the hours of work arranged in the Pastoral Award ?
Ordinary hours of work
- The average ordinary working hours for a farm and livestock hand will be fixed by agreement between the employer and the employees but will not exceed an average of 38 hours per week over a 4 week period.
- The ordinary hours of work of farm and livestock hands (other than station cooks) will not exceed 152 hours in any consecutive period of 4 weeks.
Breaks
|
Meal breaks |
|
|
Paid rest break |
|
How are wages and allowances calculated in the Pastoral Award?
Overtime
|
For overtime worked |
Overtime rate Full-time and part-time employees % ordinary hourly rate | Overtime rate Casual employees (% of ordinary hourly rate) | |
|
Monday to Saturday—first 2 hours |
150% | 175% | |
| Monday to Saturday—after first 2 hours | 200% |
225% |
|
| Sunday—all hours | 200% |
225% |
|
Rates for shiftwork
|
Shift |
Penalty rate(% of minimum hourly rate) |
|
Successive afternoon or night shift |
115% |
| Non-successive afternoon or night shift |
First 3 hours, 150% After first 3 hours, 200% |
| Permanent night shift |
130% |
Allowance
|
Allowance |
Rate |
| * Providing own stud combs allowance – shearers, learner shearers paid per day – rams and ram stags (allowance already included in the rate tables above) |
$137.43 per day |
|
Saddle allowance – station hands |
$6.97 per week |
|
* Shearing by hand allowance – shearers, learner shearers – flock sheep (allowance already included in the rate tables above) |
$27.59 per 100 sheep |
| * Shearing by hand allowance – shearers, learner shearers – stud ewes and their lambs (allowance already included in the rate tables above) |
$34.49 per 100 sheep |
|
* Shearing by hand allowance – shearers, learner shearers – rams and ram stags (allowance already included in the rate tables above) |
$55.18 per 100 sheep |
| * Shearing by hand allowance – shearers, learner shearers paid per day – flock sheep (allowance already included in the rate tables above) | $20.61 per day |
| * Shearing by hand allowance – shearers, learner shearers paid per day – stud ewes and their lambs (allowance already included in the rate tables above) |
$25.77 per day |
|
* Shearing by hand allowance – shearers, learner shearers paid per day – rams and ram stags (allowance already included in the rate tables above) |
$41.23 per day |
| Sheep spraying allowance | $3.95 each day |
| Tool and equipment reimbursement |
reimbursement for the cost of tools and equipment |
| Daily travel allowance – away from home – shearing operations – not woolclassers or shearing shed experts |
$19.88 per hour for all travel time in excess of 1 hour a day |
|
Daily travel allowance – living at home – traveling time allowance – shearers, learner shearers & crutchers |
$17.89 per day |
|
Daily travel allowance – living at home – vehicle allowance – shearing operations |
$0.95 per km for return travel between home and the shed by the most direct practicable route |
| Expenses while traveling allowance – expeditionary employee – woolclassers |
$4.25 per hour from the time of departure from the place of engagement or from home until the time of arrival at the place of employment and from the time of departure from the place of employment to home or the place of engagement |
|
Fares reimbursement – expeditionary employee – woolclassers |
reimbursement for the cost of fares for travel to and from the shed at the start and finish of work on the most direct route from the closest of home, the previous place of work or the place of engagement |
|
Vehicle allowance – expeditionary employee – woolclassers |
$0.95 per km for travel to and from the shed at the start and finish of the work on the most direct route from the closest of home, the previous place of work or the place of engagement |
| Traveling time allowance |
the appropriate rate as part of work hours |
|
Vehicle allowance |
$0.95 per km |
|
Wet work – clothing & footwear allowance |
reimbursement for the cost of clothing and footwear |
|
Woolpressers – weighing and branding bales allowance |
$0.49 per bale extra |
| Work not starting on scheduled day allowance – piecework – Woolclassers Level 1 |
$156.70 per day until work is able to begin |
| Work not starting on scheduled day allowance – piecework – Woolclassers Level 2 |
$169.09 per day until work is able to begin |
| Work not starting on scheduled day allowance – piecework – Woolclassers Level 3 |
$177.15 per day until work is able to begin |
How is the leave managed in the Pastoral Award?
In the pastoral award, leave entitlements for employees are determined by the National Employment Standards (NES) and the classification of the employee.
Annual leave
All annual leave is per the National Employment Standards NES. Employees are entitled to 4 weeks paid leave per year, plus an additional week for some shift workers.
Conversion to hourly entitlement:
- An employer may reach agreement with the majority of employees concerned to convert the annual leave entitlement in section 87 of the Act to an hourly entitlement for administrative ease (e.g. 152 hours for a full-time employee entitled to 4 weeks’ annual leave (4 weeks x 38 hours per week)).
Public holidays
The National Employment Standards (NES) provide entitlements for public holidays.
Substitution of certain public holidays by agreement at the enterprise
- An employer and employee may agree to substitute another day for a day that would otherwise be a public holiday under the NES.
- An employer and employee may agree to substitute another part-day for a part-day that would otherwise be a part-day public holiday under the NES.
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