Marine Towage Award

Coverage under this award is specific and should be tested carefully. Marine towage is close to other maritime and port based activities, but the award itself draws firm boundaries and expects employers to respect them rather than defaulting to one broad maritime label.

• Check whether the operation is harbour towage or the defined tug and barge work before using this award.
• Do not assume the award covers work that is really offshore oil and gas, dredging, ports and enclosed waters work, or maintenance contracting under another award.
• If the business may be touched by more than one award, use the classification that best matches the work performed and the environment in which it is usually performed.

The employment categories are short, but the setup rules are not casual. A business should be able to show from its records when part-time duty periods were set, when they changed, and when a casual engagement involved ordinary work as opposed to special voyage work.

• Set the employment type clearly at the outset as full-time, part-time or casual.
• For part-time employees, give written notice of rostered periods of duty before work starts and record agreed variations in writing.
• For casual employees, check the casual loading, overtime treatment, special voyage rule and minimum engagement requirement.

Fatigue management is a central compliance issue in marine towage. The award deals with ordinary hours, span of hours, extended continuous work, meal breaks and later rest as one connected system, so businesses should roster and record them together rather than as separate afterthoughts.

• Ordinary hours for full-time employees are based on a 35 hour week that may be averaged over up to one year.
• The usual ordinary span is limited by the award, although it can be altered by majority agreement in a port.
• Employees should not be required to work continuously beyond the ordinary limit unless the extended hours conditions are met.
• Meal breaks must be provided within the award framework and the employer cannot ignore them because operations are busy.

Towage rosters can become messy very quickly because crews move between ordinary duties, port disruptions and unscheduled tasks. Accurate duty and break records are therefore part of compliance, not just administration. Without them it is hard to prove fatigue compliance or the correct overtime outcome.

• The award includes minimum break in duty rules as well as meal break rules.
• Keep clear records showing when ordinary work ended, when a break in duty started and when later duty resumed.
• Distinguish ordinary work, overtime and irregular operational work in time records.

Payroll under this award changes with the type of towage work being done. The biggest trap is treating all days the same when the award clearly separates ordinary daily pay from the special voyage regime in harbour towage operations.

• Base pay depends on both the employee's role and whether the operation is Category 1 or Category 2.
• Harbour special voyages sit under a separate payment rule and should not be folded into the ordinary daily minimum rate.
• Check whether the employee is on outside work, nominated voyage work or ordinary harbour duties before applying the pay rule.

This award includes several non-wage entitlements that are easy to overlook because they arise from equipment, incidents or vessel administration rather than from hours worked. Proper records matter because these items can become contentious long after the work has been performed.

• Check which allowances apply to all employees and which only apply to harbour towage or tug and barge operations.
• Record when protective clothing or equipment is supplied by the employer and when reimbursement is required instead.
• Track sunglasses and personal effects issues separately from ordinary wages because they are different forms of award entitlement.

Marine towage is an industry where employees can be contacted at inconvenient times, but the award now sits alongside the statutory right to disconnect. Employers should therefore be able to explain why out of hours contact is being made and why it is reasonable in the circumstances.

• The award reflects the employee right to disconnect under the Fair Work Act.
• Towage work often involves operational urgency, but that does not remove the need to consider when after hours contact is necessary.
• Review port and vessel communication practices so urgent contact is linked to operational need rather than habit.

PR799330, PR799487

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, 17 - Allowances, Schedule A - Summary of Hourly Rates of Pay, Schedule B - Summary of Monetary Allowances