Dredging Industry Award

It covers employers throughout Australia in the dredging industry and their employees in the classifications the award lists. This includes dredging work and operating dredging vessels, land reclamation, and dredging connected with mining and oil and gas projects. On-hire workers and group training trainees placed into dredging are also covered. Employees under other maritime awards, such as seagoing, stevedoring or port authority awards, are excluded.

Classifications are grouped by the operational state of the dredge: non-propelled, not fully operational, and fully operational, with the fully operational group split into day workers and shiftworkers. Within each group there are named maritime roles, from chief engineer and tug master down to deckhand, greaser and crew attendant, each with its own minimum rate. Classify each employee by their actual role and the vessel state, and confirm current rates on the Fair Work Pay Calculator.

Casual employees are commonly paid a 25% casual loading on top of the minimum hourly rate for their classification. The loading compensates casuals for not receiving paid leave such as annual and personal leave. It applies to ordinary hours and is not paid on top of overtime under this award. Always confirm the exact current loading and how it combines with penalties against the Fair Work source before running pay.

Work outside an employee's ordinary hours from Monday to Sunday attracts a substantial overtime penalty under this award, calculated on the ordinary hourly rate. The casual loading does not apply on top of overtime. Public holidays are treated separately and paid at an even higher rate. Because the exact figure and the rules for stacking with shift allowances matter, confirm the current overtime rate against the Fair Work Pay Calculator for each situation.

Work on a public holiday attracts a significant penalty, commonly up to 150% loading as a guide, usually with a minimum payment so a short shift is still paid for a set minimum. The award also provides an alternative arrangement for long shifts that commence on a public holiday. Employees who would normally work that day are generally entitled to be paid even if they do not work. Verify the current rate and minimum payment against the Fair Work source.

Beyond standard meal and travel allowances, this award carries maritime-specific allowances. These include a confined areas rate for work inside tanks, boilers and bilges, a hard-lying allowance for shared-cabin accommodation aboard the vessel, a shipkeeping allowance, a dual certificate allowance, and radar observer's and firefighting allowances for qualified crew. Each applies only in defined conditions. Confirm the current amounts and the qualifying conditions for each against the Fair Work source.

The hard-lying allowance is paid to employees who have to share cabin accommodation aboard the vessel rather than having their own cabin. It is a weekly allowance recognising the reduced standard of accommodation. It is one of several maritime allowances in this award that general payroll systems often miss. Check whether your crew's accommodation triggers it and confirm the current weekly amount against the Fair Work source.

Yes. The award provides a meal allowance when an employee works a qualifying period of overtime, an accommodation allowance and a victualling allowance when away from the home port, and travelling allowances covering both local and non-local travel, including fares and travel time. Industrial clothing and protective gear are also covered. Each has a set amount that changes over time, so confirm current values against the Fair Work Pay Calculator.

Modern award minimum rates rise from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July each year, following the Fair Work Commission's Annual Wage Review, not necessarily on 1 July itself. The 2026 review increased modern award minimums by 4.75%. Apply the new rates from the correct pay period to avoid under or overpaying. Confirm the current rate for each classification on the Fair Work Pay Calculator.

Shiftworkers attract a loading on the ordinary hourly rate for shifts that commence in the evening, with an additional loading for afternoon and night shifts where a three-shift system operates. These loadings are separate from weekend and public holiday penalties and from overtime. Because dredging often runs on continuous rosters, identify shiftworkers correctly and confirm the current shift loadings against the Fair Work source for your roster pattern.

Full-time and part-time employees are generally entitled to annual leave loading of 17.5% on top of their ordinary pay when they take paid annual leave. Casuals do not accrue annual leave, which is part of what the casual loading compensates for. Some long-shift public holiday arrangements in this award accrue additional leave instead of higher pay. Always confirm how leave loading interacts with an employee's normal rate using the Fair Work source.

Casuals are engaged by the hour and paid the casual loading, commonly 25%, in place of paid leave. This award also notifies casuals of a maximum engagement period on their first day. Casual conversion to permanent employment is governed by the National Employment Standards. Build casual rules carefully, because the loading, engagement limits and conversion rights all carry compliance risk. Valont's award-compliant payroll service applies these MA000085 rules so casual pay and engagement are handled correctly.

Underpayments usually come from using the wrong vessel-state classification, missing maritime allowances like confined areas or hard-lying, mishandling overtime and public holiday rates, and applying rate increases late. Set classifications and roster rules correctly, then check current figures against the Fair Work Pay Calculator each review cycle. Valont manages award-compliant payroll for SMEs, interpreting MA000085 rules so the right rates, penalties and allowances flow through automatically.