Professional Diving Industry (Industrial) Award

Coverage is the first legal issue under this award. The label diver is not enough by itself to decide the position, especially where work overlaps with another diving award.

• Confirm the work is industrial diving, not recreational diving.
• Match the employee to a Schedule A classification before setting pay.
• If the employer is touched by more than one award, apply the classification that is most appropriate to the work and the working environment.

The award has strict engagement settings. You should decide at the outset whether the work is inshore or offshore and whether the employee is full-time or casual.

• Employees under this award are either full-time or casual.
• A full-time employee works an average of 38 ordinary hours per week.
• Inshore divers must be employed by the week, while offshore divers are weekly for the first 4 weeks and then on a calendar month basis.
• Casual employees have a loading and an 8 hour minimum payment, subject to the special inshore attendance rule in clause 10.4.

Inshore rostering has a defined ordinary span and a short meal break trigger. Those rules need to be built into the roster rather than fixed after the event.

• For inshore divers, ordinary hours are worked between 6.00 am and 6.00 pm, Monday to Friday.
• The spread can only be altered by up to one hour by mutual agreement.
• An inshore diver must not work more than 3 hours without an unpaid meal break fixed by agreement.

Classification changes during the job and clean payroll records matter under this award. A flat day rate can hide compliance errors quickly.

• Higher duties need to be recorded day by day because the award changes the rate when a higher classification is performed.
• The payment of wages clause also requires allowances to be separately identifiable in payroll records and payslips.
• On termination, clause 28.4 requires award and NES amounts to be paid within the award timeframe.

Allowance compliance depends on what work was actually done and under what conditions. Good dive records are essential under this award.

• The award has specific allowance triggers for diving allowance, non-destructive testing work and hyperbaric welding work.
• The diving allowance only applies once the threshold depth or equivalent pressure condition is met, or when decompression is necessary.
• Practice or training dives do not attract the diving allowance.
• A diving supervisor can also receive an allowance linked to the average diving allowance earned by divers under their control.

The award is not the whole legal answer. Coverage can shift once the NES, enterprise instruments and competing awards are considered.

• The NES continues to operate alongside the award.
• Enterprise instruments and public sector exclusions can displace coverage.
• Where the employer operates across more than one award setting, you still have to identify the most appropriate classification and environment.

PR799388, PR799543

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

Affected: 27 - Minimum rates, 29 - Allowances, 32 - Minimum rates, 34 - Allowances, Schedule B - Summary of Rates of Pay, Schedule C - Summary of Monetary Allowances