Maritime Offshore Oil and Gas Award

Coverage is the threshold issue under this award. A wrong award choice at the start usually leads to the wrong engagement model, hours rules and salary structure later on.

• Check first that the work is vessel work in or in connection with offshore oil and gas operations.
• Then test it against the award's express maritime exclusions, including dredging, towage, ports and enclosed waters, seagoing and stevedoring industries.
• If more than one award could apply, use the most appropriate classification and work environment test rather than assuming offshore work automatically answers the question.

One of the first compliance checks is whether the engagement uses a category the award actually recognises. This award does not provide a general casual model in the supplied clauses.

• Employees under this award are employed as either full-time employees or relief employees.
• At engagement, the employer must tell the employee whether they are full-time or relief.
• Relief employment is for one-off relief periods or projects with a finite life, and relief employees receive pro rata equivalent pay and conditions to full-time employees.

This award is built for long-cycle offshore operations, but it still defines ordinary hours carefully. Roster design should be planned around averaging, daily limits and swing-cycle operations from the outset.

• A full-time employee is engaged to work an average of 38 ordinary hours per week plus reasonable additional hours.
• Ordinary hours are worked Monday to Sunday and may be averaged over a period of up to 52 weeks for the purposes of section 63 of the Act.
• Employees may work up to 8 ordinary hours a day, which may be extended to 12 hours subject to the award, and employees who go to sea may be engaged on a swing cycle.

Operational urgency does not remove the fatigue controls. Emergency planning needs a recovery rule, not just a reason for the long day.

• In a rig shift, major machinery breakdown or emergency, employees may be required to work beyond 12 hours a day.
• They must not be required to be continuously on active duty for more than 18 hours in a day.
• After 18 hours of continuous active duty, the employee must have 10 consecutive hours off duty, inclusive of meal breaks, before further duty.

Break planning is part of vessel management under this award. The operational exception is real, but it is an exception, not a licence to ignore meal breaks.

• Employees are entitled to an unpaid meal break of at least 30 minutes for each meal.
• The employer cannot ordinarily require work for more than 6 hours before the first meal break or between later meal breaks.
• Meal breaks may be curtailed where the vessel's operational requirements dictate, but the Master must schedule breaks to ensure continuity of operations.

Classification is not just about rank. The salary outcome depends on whether the employee is in the facilities stream or the relevant support vessel stream.

• The award uses aggregate annual salaries rather than a simple hourly classification model.
• Facilities classifications are listed separately from support vessel classifications.
• Support vessel salaries are also divided further by vessel grouping, so a change from facilities work to support vessel work, or between vessel groups, should trigger a fresh classification check.

Off-duty contact should be managed deliberately, especially in offshore operations where handovers, shutdowns and remote communication are common.

• The award recognises the statutory right to disconnect under the Act.
• An employer must not directly or indirectly prevent an employee from exercising that right.
• Offshore operators should be clear about what contact is part of duty, what contact is genuinely after hours, and who is expected to respond during relief or off-duty periods.

PR799366, PR799521

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

Affected: 13 - Minimum rates and classifications, 15 - Wage-related allowances, 16 - Expense-related allowances, Schedule A - Summary of Monetary Allowances