Gardening and Landscaping Services Award

This award has broad landscaping coverage, but there are several common overlap points with other industry awards. The work setting matters as much as the broad service description.

• Check whether the work is landscaping and grounds work in the award sense, or whether another listed award is the better fit.
• Installation, rehabilitation and sports field maintenance are all inside the definition.
• Do not assume coverage for work in a construction, local government or club environment without checking the exclusions.

Landscaping crews often move between projects and weather windows, so the temptation is to be flexible first and document later. The award requires the opposite.

• Employees can be full-time, part-time or casual and the engagement decision must be recorded.
• Part-time employees need a written regular pattern with days, hours and start and finish times.
• Casuals have a 3 hour minimum engagement.

Early starts and project driven scheduling are normal in this industry, but they still have to sit inside the award's ordinary hours and RDO framework.

• Ordinary hours are 38, or an average of 38, a week and can be averaged over a 4 week cycle.
• The ordinary span is Monday to Friday from 6.00 am to 6.00 pm and Saturday from 6.00 am to 12 noon.
• Ordinary hours cannot exceed 10 a day, and rostered day off systems have their own notice, substitution and accumulation rules.

Water restrictions are a distinctive rule in this award. They create a lawful exception to the normal spread of hours, but not a free pass to ignore the pay consequence.

• Water restrictions let an employer require ordinary hours at other times on days other than Saturday after 12 noon or on Sunday.
• If those hours fall outside the usual spread, the clause provides a higher payment rule.
• Keep a clear record of why the roster was changed and that the change was because of water restrictions.

Classification is skill and qualification based. An employee using equipment, exercising more judgment or holding trade qualifications may not stay at a lower level just because they started there.

• The classification structure runs from an Introductory level through Levels 1, 2, 3 and higher trade based levels.
• The Introductory level is limited to 3 months and is genuinely a training entry point.
• Leading hand, vehicle or plant and first aid allowances need to be checked alongside the classification decision.

The allowances in this award are practical, recurring items, not edge cases. Tool, vehicle and plant issues often arise on ordinary project work.

• Tradespersons can have a tool allowance issue where they supply tools, and the extracted clause also explains when it does not apply.
• Overtime sits separately and should be checked whenever work moves outside ordinary hours or beyond the ordinary daily structure.
• Some allowances are all-purpose and can affect later calculations.

PR799280, PR799381, PR799536

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

Affected: 15 - Minimum rates, 17 - Allowances, Schedule B - Summary of Hourly Rates of Pay, Schedule C - Summary of Monetary Allowances, Schedule D - Supported Wage System