Manufacturing Award Quick Reference

Who the award covers

The Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award 2020 is one of the broadest awards in the system. It covers manufacturing in almost every form — fabrication, assembly, food processing equipment, plastics, metals, furniture — plus associated occupations like maintenance trades, stores and warehousing within a manufacturing business, and technical and supervisory roles connected to production.

If you run a workshop or factory, assume this award applies until you've confirmed otherwise. Coverage follows the work being done, not the industry your ABN registration says you're in.

The C-scale classification structure

The award classifies production and engineering employees on the C-scale, which runs from C14 (entry level) up to C1. Counter-intuitively, the numbers run backwards: a lower C number means a higher classification and higher pay.

• C14–C13 — entry-level and basic production work, typically during initial training.
• C12–C11 — production employees exercising skills above the base level, often after in-house training or certificate-level qualifications.
• C10 — the trade benchmark. A qualified tradesperson (fitter, welder, electrician working under this award, and so on) sits here, and much of the scale is defined relative to C10.
• C9–C5 — post-trade skills, advanced certificates and specialised technical work.
• C4–C1 — advanced technical, professional and supervisory classifications.

Classification is driven by the skills the employee is required to use in the role, not just the qualifications they hold. The current dollar rates for every classification are in the Fair Work Ombudsman's pay guide, updated after each Annual Wage Review.

Shifts, overtime and penalties

• Shiftwork definitions matter — the award defines afternoon, night and continuous shifts, each attracting its own loading at the rates currently prescribed. Calling a shift the wrong thing in your roster means paying the wrong loading.
• Overtime — applies beyond ordinary hours and outside the agreed spread, at the multiples set in the award, with different treatment for Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays.
• Rostered days off (RDOs) — the award allows ordinary hours to be averaged so employees accrue RDOs; the accrual and payout rules are specific and worth reading before you adopt the arrangement.
• Meal breaks and rest breaks — including penalties where breaks are missed or delayed.

Allowances worth checking

Manufacturing has one of the longest allowance lists of any award. The ones most often missed in payroll setups:

• Tool allowance — for tradespeople who supply their own tools.
• Leading hand allowance — for employees directing the work of others, scaled by team size.
• First aid allowance — for the qualified first aider designated on shift.
• Disability-style allowances — for hot, dirty, confined or otherwise unpleasant conditions, each defined in the award.
• Meal allowance — when overtime runs past the trigger point in the award.

All amounts change over time — take the current figures from the award and the Fair Work pay tools, never from an old spreadsheet.

Common compliance failures

• Paying everyone a flat hourly rate that doesn't reconcile against shift loadings, overtime and allowances for the hours actually worked.
• Stalling employees at C13/C12 after they've been trained into higher-skill work.
• Missing allowances entirely because payroll was set up from the pay rate alone, not the award.
• Casual conversion obligations — regular casuals accrue rights around conversion to permanent employment that many manufacturers overlook.

Most of these aren't deliberate — they're what happens when rosters, payroll and the award live in three different places with nobody owning the join. Getting the back office connected is usually the durable fix; see also our people page for how award compliance fits into a broader people function.

Treat this as orientation rather than advice — the award itself and the Fair Work Ombudsman are the authorities on what applies to your crew.