Horse and Greyhound Training Award

Coverage here is about the stable and training operation. The apprentice jockey exclusion is a genuine carve out and should be checked separately.

• Check that the work is in the training and preparation of animals for the relevant racing industries and falls within the functions listed in clause 4.2.
• The award reaches on-hire work and group training arrangements in covered settings.
• There is a specific exclusion for apprentice jockeys when they are undertaking paid trial or race riding arrangements.
• If more than one award could apply, clause 4.7 points to the classification most appropriate to the work and environment.

This award does not treat casual engagement as a free-form option. The circumstances for using casuals and the later conversion right both need attention.

• Employees are engaged by the week as full-time, part-time or casual.
• Part-time employees work less than the full ordinary hours figure and must have a regular pattern from week to week.
• Casual use is limited to short-term needs, emergencies or work that cannot be practicably rostered to a permanent employee.
• Casual engagement has its own minimum daily period, attendance rule and conversion right after a regular pattern of hours has been worked.

The roster rules are unusually concrete. Half days, posting deadlines and breaks all need to be built into the stable's weekly routine.

• Ordinary hours are rostered under the weekly pattern set by the award.
• An employee rostered on two half days cannot be required to work after midday on those half days as part of ordinary hours.
• The roster for the following week must be posted on Monday of the preceding week.
• Employees are entitled to the award's paid rest break and meal break arrangements.

Race meetings, travel and stand-by issues can materially change payroll. Do not treat them as already absorbed into the ordinary weekly rate.

• Base pay still starts with the award's classification structure.
• Race meeting attendance is not just another ordinary shift. Clause 15.2 deals with attendance, transport, meal and travel allowances for those events.
• Overtime, penalties and stand-by issues should be checked separately from ordinary weekly pay.

Keep NES issues, award conversion rules and payroll coding separate. In a small stable, those issues can otherwise be blurred into one informal arrangement.

• The NES still operate alongside the award.
• Casual conversion issues should be checked against both the award wording and the NES pathway.
• Allowances must be separately identified in payroll records and payslips.

Separate allowance coding matters in racing operations because not every employee receives the same allowance every week.

• Allowance payments can vary sharply from week to week depending on race meetings and travel.
• If allowances are not coded separately, later checking becomes difficult.

PR799280, PR799289, PR799446

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

Affected: 13 - Classifications and minimum rates, 15 - Allowances, Schedule A - Summary of Hourly Rates of Pay, Schedule B - Summary of Monetary Allowances, Schedule C - Supported Wage System