Aircraft Cabin Crew Award

Coverage depends on the employee being aircraft cabin crew and fitting the cabin crew classification structure. It is not enough that the business is an airline.

• Use this award for aircraft cabin crew roles, not for general airline staff.
• On-hire cabin crew can also be covered where there is no more appropriate modern award classification.
• If the employer is covered by more than one award, use the classification that best fits the work and the work environment.

This award is stream-based. If the business does not record the flying stream clearly, rostering and payroll errors become likely.

• At engagement, decide whether the employee is predominantly domestic, regional, international or mixed flying.
• That appointment matters because hours and duty limits sit in different schedules for each stream.
• Allowances are also split by stream in clause 16.
• Do not apply one generic cabin crew rule set across a mixed workforce.

Part-time and full-time cabin crew are measured differently from many other awards. Annual full-time hours and written part-time patterns both matter.

• Full-time employees are rostered between 1716 and 1872 hours per annum.
• Part-time employees need a written regular pattern of work.
• Part-time cabin crew must be rostered for at least 4 consecutive hours on a shift.
• Work beyond the mutually arranged part-time hours is overtime.

Casual cabin crew cannot be treated like ad hoc extras with loose payment practices. The award fixes both the minimum engagement and the ordinary-hours loading.

• Casual cabin crew are paid the minimum hourly rate for the class of work plus a 25 percent loading for ordinary hours.
• Casual cabin crew have a 4 hour minimum payment on each occasion they are required to work.
• Casual pay frequency can be at the end of each engagement, weekly, fortnightly or monthly, with other arrangements possible by agreement.
• Casual conversion is dealt with through the NES pathway referenced in clause 11.4.

Operational flexibility exists under this award, but it comes with clear limits. Worldwide operation and after-hours contact both have boundaries that need to be respected.

• Employees may be directed to work anywhere the employer operates and to perform duties within their skills, competence and training.
• That flexibility is broad, but not unlimited.
• Service cannot be required in warlike or hostile circumstances.
• After-hours contact must stay within the award's reserve and stand-by exceptions and the employee right to disconnect.

Allowance handling is stream-specific under this award. A single payroll code for all cabin crew is unlikely to be correct in a mixed operation.

• Domestic, regional and international allowances are set in separate schedules.
• Payroll should not assume one allowance set applies to every cabin crew member.
• The correct schedule needs to be tied back to the employee's appointment and actual flying.

PR799327, PR799484

The current consolidated award incorporates these recent variation determinations. Use the consolidated wording when checking any affected clause, schedule, rate or allowance.

Affected: 14 - Minimum rates, Schedule A - Domestic Flying, Schedule B - Regional Flying, Schedule C - International Flying, Schedule D - Summary of Hourly Rates of Pay, Schedule E - Summary of Monetary Allowances