Employees other than cleaners

Penalty rates in the Meat Award depend on the:

• type of establishment the employee works in
• days the work is done on
• hours the work is done over.

Penalty rates are paid on the minimum hourly rate for all ordinary hours worked. Work done outside the spread of hours is overtime.

Casuals other than employees working in a load out area get the penalty rate instead of the casual loading.

Shiftworkers are paid different rates. Please see Shiftworker rates in the Meat Award for more information.

Meat processing establishments

When employees have agreed to work ordinary hours on a weekend, they get paid:

• 150% on Saturdays
• 200% on Sundays.

Retail meat establishments

Employees get paid:

• 125% from 4am to 6pm on Saturdays
• 150%  from 8am to 6pm on Sundays.

Load out area

Employees can work ordinary hours in a load out area between 10pm - 4pm.

An employee working ordinary hours in a load out area gets 125% from 10pm to 6am.

Casuals working in a load out area get the casual loading in addition to the rates above.

Meat manufacturing establishments

Employees get paid 125% for up to 4 ordinary hours on a Saturday. Overtime will apply to hours worked after the first 4 hours on a Saturday and to all hours on a Sunday.

Cleaners

Cleaners can work in any establishment covered by the Meat Award. Their ordinary hours can be worked between 6.30am and midnight any day of the week.

Cleaners get paid different rates depending on the time they start work. They don’t get weekend penalty rates.

When they're not working shifts, cleaners get paid the following rates for ordinary hours:

• 100% for work starting between 6.30am and 8.30am
• 105% for work starting after 8.30am and before 12pm
• 112.5% for work starting from 12pm and finishing at or before 12am.

Cleaners can also work shifts. If the employee is entitled to both a penalty rate and a shiftwork rate for the same shift, they will only get the higher rate, not both.

Casual cleaners also get paid the casual loading for all hours worked. The penalty rate and the casual loading are both paid on the minimum hourly rate.

Example – Cleaner working ordinary hours

Carla is a part-time cleaner. On Thursday she starts at 12pm and finishes at 8pm. These hours aren’t shift hours.

Cleaners get paid 112.5% of their minimum hourly rate for work starting from 12pm and finishing at or before 12am.

Therefore, Carla gets paid 112.5% of her ordinary hourly rate for all hours worked on Thursday.

Example – Cleaner working shift hours

Ben is a cleaner. He usually works between 2pm and 10pm. These hours fall within 2 penalty provisions:

• ordinary hours of work for cleaners starting from 12pm and finishing at or before 12am
• afternoon shiftwork.

As the afternoon shift penalty is higher, Ben gets the afternoon shift penalty of 115% for the hours worked.