Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award.

Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award 2020 (MA000118) covers private veterinary surgery practices, community-based animal welfare charities. Common roles include animal care, grooming, feeding and restraint, clinic reception and clerical work, veterinary nursing, anaesthesia monitoring and surgical preparation, practice management. This award pays three groups differently. For vet nurses, receptionists, animal attendants, practice managers and animal welfare inspectors on day work, the Saturday penalty starts at 1.00 pm: 150% for the first 3 hours after 1.00 pm, then 200%, and no Saturday penalty is printed for ordinary hours before 1.00 pm (clause 21.1). The Saturday row of the penalty table is the rate for those first 3 hours after 1.00 pm, and further rows give the rate after them and before 1.00 pm. Sunday is 200%, and a public holiday is 250% with a 4 hour minimum (clause 27.2(a)). Shiftworkers are paid 115% for a shift finishing after 8.00 pm or starting at or before 6.30 am, and 130% where most of the shift falls between midnight and 8.00 am (clause 21.2), replaced by a flat 150%, 200% or 250% when most of the shift falls on a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday (clause 21.3). Those shift rates do not apply to day workers. Casual penalties are additive: 175% then 225% on a Saturday afternoon, 225% on a Sunday and 275% on a public holiday (clause 21.1). Veterinary surgeons get no weekend penalty, because clause 21 applies only to employees other than vets, and time beyond 38 hours a week, other than on call, is paid at the ordinary time rate or, by agreement, taken as time off hour for hour (clause 20.2(a)). A full-time or part-time vet is paid 200% on a public holiday (clause 27.3(a)(i)). For a casual vet the award gives two different figures, 200% in clause 27.3(a)(iii) and 225% in Schedule B.2.5, so we publish neither. The Introductory level ($978.10 a week) is below the $1,004.90 National Minimum Wage and lasts no more than 3 months (clause A.2.1). Inspector and vet rates are annual salaries, $67,582 to $77,032 for inspectors and $67,582 to $95,593 for vets (clauses 15.1 and 15.3): the weekly figures in the pay table divide the salary by 52 and round to the nearest 10 cents, the method clause 15.3 gives for vets, and they reproduce the hourly rates the award prints. The award covers private veterinary practices and community-based animal welfare charities (clauses 4.2 and 4.3), and does not cover employers in the industries of the Pastoral Award, the Food, Beverage and Tobacco Manufacturing Award, the Horse and Greyhound Training Award or the Amusement, Events and Recreation Award (clause 4.4).

Full-time and part-time employees are paid 150% of the base hourly rate (1.50x) for working on Saturday. Casuals receive 175% (the FT rate plus the 25% casual loading). Not every Saturday hour is paid at that rate: Saturday after 1.00 pm, after the first 3 hours, 200% or 225% for a casual (clause 21.1); Saturday ordinary hours before 1.00 pm, 100% or 125% for a casual (clauses 11.1, 13.2(a) and 21.1, which prints no Saturday penalty before 1.00 pm); Shiftworkers, where most of a shift falls on a Saturday, 150% or 175% for a casual (clause 21.3 and Schedule B.2.4, with no 1.00 pm threshold and no 3 hour split); Veterinary surgeons, Saturday, 100% or 125% for a casual (clause 21 applies to employees other than veterinary surgeons; Schedule B.2.5).

FT/PT employees are paid 200% of the base hourly rate (2.00x) for Sunday work. Casuals receive 225% (the FT rate plus the 25% casual loading). Not every Sunday hour is paid at that rate: Veterinary surgeons, Sunday, 100% or 125% for a casual (clause 21 applies to employees other than veterinary surgeons; Schedule B.2.5).

FT/PT employees who work on a gazetted public holiday are paid 250% of the base hourly rate (2.50x). Casuals receive 275% (the FT rate plus the 25% casual loading). Employees who don't work the holiday receive their ordinary day's pay if it would otherwise have been a working day. Not every public holiday hour is paid at that rate: Veterinary surgeons, public holiday, 200%, with two different casual figures in the award (clause 27.3(a)(i); for a casual vet clause 27.3(a)(iii) says 200% and Schedule B.2.5 says 225%, so neither is published).

Standard full-time employees get 4 weeks of paid annual leave per year under the NES. A 7 day shiftworker who is regularly rostered to work on Sundays and public holidays in a business where shifts are continuously rostered 24 hours a day for 7 days a week gets a 5th week of annual leave (clause 22.2). Their excessive accrual threshold is 10 weeks rather than 8 (clause 22.7(a)). The 5-week entitlement comes from NES s.87(1)(b), which the Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award classifies eligibility for. Calculate annual leave accrual →

Day workers get the greater of 17.5% or the weekend penalty rates they would have earned during the leave, not both. Shift workers get the greater of 17.5% or the weekend and shift penalties they would have earned. The 17.5% is calculated on the rate of wage prescribed for your classification in clause 15, Minimum rates (clause 22.3(a)). Leave loading calculator →

25% on top of the base hourly rate, paid in place of entitlements a casual does not get, such as paid annual leave and paid personal/carer's leave. Casual loading is added to the FT/PT rate for Saturday, Sunday, public holidays, afternoon or evening shifts and night shifts.

No. The Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award does not include a formal RDO accrual cycle. Time off in lieu of overtime (TOIL) may still be available where the employer and employee agree, but it works differently from a formal RDO and is not automatically accrued.

Yes. Under this award, afternoon-shift work attracts 115% of the base hourly rate (1.15x); night-shift work attracts 130% of the base hourly rate (1.30x). For casuals, the 25% casual loading is added on top of these penalty rates.

The Fair Work Commission reviews award minimum rates each year in the Annual Wage Review. The rates on this page took effect from 1 July 2026. The official source is the FWO Pay Calculator, which always reflects the current rates. Open the FWO Pay Calculator →