Horticulture Award

Do the industry mapping first. Many disputes in this award start because the business assumed every farm activity sat under horticulture.

• Check the business activity against the horticulture definition, especially where the operation mixes crop work with vineyards, nurseries or other excluded sectors.
• The award can cover both crop work and connected land preparation work such as clearing, fencing, trenching and draining.
• The list of exclusions matters. Plant nurseries, wine industry work, cotton related work, sugar operations and silviculture are all carved out.
• On-hire and group training arrangements can still be covered if the underlying work is in the horticulture industry as defined.

A new seasonal worker and a more experienced hand should not automatically be treated the same way under this award. The progression point matters.

• Employees must be classified using Schedule A, not just a label like picker or packer.
• Level 1 is an induction and new employee level. Schedule A requires progression to Level 2 after no more than the stated industry experience period.
• The indicative duties at Levels 1 and 2 include picking, thinning, pruning, labouring, basic recording work, packing and grading, and small towing tractor work during harvest.
• Level 2 assumes more experience and a wider task range with limited discretion.

Rosters under this award depend on whether the employee is hourly, casual or shiftwork. One template will not suit every horticulture workforce.

• Part-time employees must be told their ordinary hours and starting and finishing times, and time above the mutually arranged hours is overtime.
• Casual employees have their own minimum engagement and casual loading rules.
• For full-time and part-time employees other than shiftworkers, ordinary hours are averaged under the award's roster cycle rules.
• Saturday ordinary hours, extended spread of hours and longer ordinary days all depend on the required agreement mechanism.

Piece rates are not a shortcut around compliance. They are one of the most technical parts of this award and should be checked before each season starts.

• Piece rates need careful design. The benchmark is the average productivity of a competent pieceworker, and the fixed rate must let that worker earn more than the relevant hourly rate under the award.
• If a pieceworker does extra non-piecework, that work must be paid at the hourly rate.
• Pieceworkers sit outside the ordinary hours and overtime clauses identified in clause 15.2.
• Use a proper piecework record for each pieceworker.

Travel time and allowance coding matter in horticulture because duties, weather and work locations can change quickly during a season.

• Allowances can materially change outcomes. The award includes leading hand, wet work, first aid and travel-related entitlements.
• Where an employee is required to travel from one place to another, the time occupied in travelling can count as time worked under the award.
• Allowances need to be separately identified in payroll records and payslips.

Keep the award, the NES and payroll coding separate. Informal harvest practices often blur those lines and create avoidable disputes.

• The NES continue to operate alongside the award.
• Piecework arrangements do not displace the need to comply with the parts of the award that still apply to pieceworkers.
• Payroll should keep hourly work, piecework and allowances separate so later checking is possible.

PR799280, PR799309, PR799466

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, 18 - Allowances, Schedule B - Summary of Hourly Rates of Pay, Schedule C - Summary of Monetary Allowances, Schedule D - Supported Wage System