Maintenance persons in the hospitality industry undertake repairs and scheduled maintenance on the venue’s facilities, buildings and equipment. They’re also known as handypersons or maintenance technicians.

Maintenance persons can be unqualified or trade qualified.

Industry award coverage

Hospitality Award

The Hospitality Award covers:

• unqualified maintenance persons who perform routine maintenance on their employer’s premises
• unqualified and trade qualified casino equipment technicians classified under the casino gaming stream.

Except for casino gaming technicians, the award doesn’t cover trade qualified maintenance persons who use their trade qualification in their work. This is because there are no other classifications covering trade qualified maintenance persons in the award.

Example

Mario is a maintenance technician employed by a resort.

He does basic maintenance and repairs of the resort’s buildings and facilities. He worked in the past as a general handyperson but doesn’t have a trade qualification.

Mario is employed as a handyperson (wage level 3) employee under the Hospitality Award.

Example

Mindy is employed by a casino as a casino equipment technician.

She’s a qualified electrical tradesperson. She works without supervision and uses her trade skills to install, test, maintain, diagnose and repair the casino’s electronic gaming equipment.

Mindy is employed as casino equipment technician grade 3 under the Hospitality Award.

Other industry awards

There are other awards that apply to employers in the hospitality industry which cover trade qualified maintenance persons.

For example, a maintenance person may be covered by one of the following industry awards:

• the Alpine Resorts Award covers trade qualified staff who have completed an apprenticeship in an electrical, fitting, mechanical, painting, spray painting, carpentry or building discipline. They’ll be classified as a Resort Worker Level 6.
• the Registered Clubs Award covers maintenance and horticultural tradespeople. They’ll be classified according to their duties.

To work out whether another industry award covers an employee, you may wish to contact us on your own situation.

No industry award coverage

When there's no industry award covering a trade qualified maintenance person employed in the hospitality industry, they may be:

• covered by an occupational award, such as the Manufacturing Award or the Joinery Award
• covered by the Miscellaneous Award, or
• award free.

This depends upon the employee's duties and qualifications.

Occupational awards

A maintenance person who is not covered by an industry award may be covered by the Manufacturing Award or the Joinery Award on an occupational basis.

The Manufacturing Award can cover employees including electrical tradespeople, welders and mechanical tradespeople.

The Joinery Award can cover employees including carpenters, painters and plasterers.

They’ll be classified based on their duties and qualifications.

Example

Pete is a maintenance technician at a motel and caravan park business.

He’s a trade qualified electrician. He uses his qualification to install and maintain powered camp sites, does maintenance on the laundry and kitchen facilities and electrical equipment, fixes electrical faults and maintains the fire and security systems.

Pete is covered by the electrical/electronic stream of the Manufacturing Award. He’s classified as a C10.

Miscellaneous Award

The Miscellaneous Award can cover a hospitality industry maintenance person if they’re not:

• covered by an industry or occupational award
• a managerial employee, or
• a professional employee.

Award free

A maintenance worker in the hospitality industry who isn’t covered by an industry or occupational award or the Miscellaneous Award is award free.

Award free employees are entitled to the national minimum wage and the National Employment Standards.