Identify The Correct Pastoral Stream First
cl 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.7This award only works properly if the employer identifies the right stream first. Treating every worker on the property as if they sit under one simple farm model is the main compliance risk.
- Start with the actual pastoral activity being carried out, not the business's broad description of itself.
- Check the exclusion lines for horticulture, sugar, wine, silviculture and some aquaculture or seafood work.
- Where the business has mixed operations, match each employee to the work and environment that is most appropriate for that employee.
Put Employment Terms In Writing
cl 8.2, 9.2, 10.2, 10.3Written engagement terms matter under this award because the employment type changes how hours, overtime and stream specific rules operate.
- At engagement, tell each employee whether they are full-time, part-time or casual.
- Full-time employees must receive a written statement of classification, rate of pay and terms of engagement.
- Part-time employees need a written regular pattern of work, and any change in hours must also be agreed in writing.
Apply The Dairy Part-time Exception Carefully
cl 10.6, 10.7The part-time minimum engagement rule is not a general short shift option. If the business wants a 2 hour shift, it needs to fit the exact dairy exception.
- The standard minimum engagement for a part-time employee is 3 consecutive hours on a shift.
- The evidence shows one narrow 2 hour exception only for a dairy operator who is 18 years old or younger and a full-time secondary school student.
- Do not apply the dairy exception to the rest of the workforce.
Keep Broadacre Work And Shearing Work Separate
cl 8.3, 51.1, 51.2, 51.3Broadacre work and shearing work should not be blended together on mixed properties. The award treats the crossover as a specific rule, not a payroll shortcut.
- A weekly farm and livestock hand can move between broadacre work and shearing operations work during the relevant shearing or crutching period under clause 8.3.
- Where clause 8.3(b) applies, station hand rates can apply to broadacre work and shearing rates can apply to shearing work.
- Mixed properties should separate that work in records instead of assuming one rate covers the whole period.
Use The Piggery Shift Clauses As A Separate System
cl 39, 40, 41, 42Pig breeding and raising has its own hours and shift logic. A piggery should be administered as its own award stream rather than folded into general farm hours.
- Part 7 of the award creates a separate shiftwork system for pig breeding and raising.
- The evidence shows that piggery attendants may work shifts under clause 39 or clause 40, and that clause 42 then applies the defined shift penalties.
- Roster design for a piggery should therefore be checked against the piggery clauses as a set, not borrowed from the broadacre stream.
Handle Poultry Overtime Under Its Own Rules
cl 49.1, 49.2Poultry farming has its own overtime structure and its own time off instead of overtime mechanism. Those rules need a dedicated payroll setting rather than a generic farm template.
- For poultry workers, time worked in excess of the ordinary hours in clause 48 is overtime.
- The award allows written agreements for time off instead of overtime, but the written terms and the 6 month timing rule need to be followed.
- Do not assume the poultry overtime rules are the same as the piggery or broadacre rules.
Read The Award Together With The NES
cl 11.6, 15.1, 15.2Some important issues under this award are not resolved by reading one clause in isolation. Casual conversion and traineeship questions in particular need a combined award and NES check.
- The award points casual conversion issues back to the NES pathway.
- The national training wage clause incorporates the traineeship schedule from the Miscellaneous Award 2020 as at 1 July 2026.
- Leave, trainee and casual status issues should be checked against both the award and the NES before a decision is made.