Frequently Asked Questions

An award sets out the rights and obligations of employers and employees engaged in particular types of work. There are many different types of awards to cover different industries and occupations.

Awards deal with conditions of employment such as hours of employment, pay rates, penalty rates, loadings, allowances, leave entitlements, employment protection provisions and part-time or casual work.

A NSW award covers all employers and employees in the industry or occupation to which it relates, whether or not they were parties to the making of the award. Every NSW award has a clause which sets out the industry or occupation covered by the award.

The Act requires an employer to exhibit a copy of all relevant NSW awards in the workplace.

Some employees who work in NSW are covered by federal awards. Sometimes, both federal and NSW awards apply to the one workplace, although to different categories of employees.

The conditions of employment specified in NSW awards apply to all of the employees doing the type of work to which the award refers, unless covered by a federal award.

A federal award will specify the category of employee to which it applies and, in addition, will indicate which employers are covered (either individually or through their membership of an employer organisation).

Many workplaces are now working under Enterprise Agreements. These enterprise agreements have pay rises built into them and have rates of pay that are higher than the award rates. The Wage Fixing Principle handed down by the Industrial Relations Commission allow award increases to be absorbed by the employer if they are paying rates higher than the award rate.

e.g. If you are being paid $38.00 above the award and the Commission increases the award by $18.00, then you will continue to be paid $20.00 above the award (unless your employer chooses to pass on the pay increase in full).