Water Industry Award.

Water Industry Award 2020 (MA000113) covers water supply and treatment, desalination, waste water and sewerage, stormwater and water recycling and related industries. Common roles include treatment plant operation, network, main and sewer crews, trades and technical maintenance, laboratory and process work. This award pays no Saturday or Sunday penalty on ordinary hours at all, so the 100% shown for both is correct rather than a gap in our data. Schedule B.1.1 gives day workers exactly two columns, ordinary hours at 100% and public holidays at 250%, and clause 21.10(b) lists only two shift penalties. A day worker's span is 6.00am to 6.00pm Monday to Friday (clause 13.2(b)), so weekend work falls outside ordinary hours and is paid as <strong>overtime</strong> instead: 150% for the first 2 hours then 200% Monday to Saturday, 200% all day Sunday, with a 3 hour minimum engagement on either weekend day. The 115% afternoon and 130% night loadings only reach you if you are employed as a shiftworker AND your roster covers more than one shift a day beyond the ordinary span (clause 21.10(a)); both limbs must be met. There is no permanent night shift premium in this award. Casual loading is never paid on overtime (clause 20.2(f)). A call-back carries a 4 hour minimum at overtime rates, counted from the moment you leave home (clause 20.5(b)). Council-run water utilities sit under the Local Government Award, not this one (clause 4.4(a)).

No specific Saturday penalty rate is set in this award.

No. Weekend work is absorbed in the annualised salary structure of this award.

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.

Standard full-time employees get 4 weeks of paid annual leave per year under the NES. An employee who works a roster that may require ordinary shifts on any of the 7 days of the week AND who is regularly rostered on Sundays and public holidays gets a 5th week of annual leave (clause 22.2). Both limbs are required. Their excessive accrual threshold also rises from 8 weeks to 10 weeks (clause 22.5(a)). The 5-week entitlement comes from NES s.87(1)(b), which the Water Industry Award classifies eligibility for. Calculate annual leave accrual →

Day workers get a flat 17.5% on the minimum hourly rate. Shift workers get the same flat 17.5%. Leave loading calculator →

25% on top of the base hourly rate, in lieu of paid annual leave, paid personal leave and notice entitlements. Casual loading is added to the FT/PT rate when a casual works any of the penalty-rate hours above (Saturday, Sunday, public holiday, evening, night).

Yes. Employer-elective rather than automatic. Ordinary hours average 38 a week over 28 days (clause 13.2(a)), and clause 13.2(e) lets the employer run either a 10 day fortnight at 7.6 hours a day or a 9 day fortnight at 8 hours 20 minutes a day with a rostered day off. Where a day worker's RDO falls on a public holiday, the next working day or part-day is substituted, or another day by written agreement (clause 13.2(f)). RDOs are paid days off, distinct from annual leave; they exist to balance ordinary hours over a fixed period. If you are paid out on termination, accrued RDO time is typically included.

Yes. Under this award, evening work any shift other than a 12 hour shift finishing after 6.00pm and at or before midnight 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.

Pay rates by classification under MA000113 change quarterly with Fair Work Commission Annual Wage Review decisions. The official source is the FWO Pay Calculator, which always reflects the current rates. Open the FWO Pay Calculator →