Black Coal Mining Industry Award
Covers production / engineering employees (Schedule A: Mineworker Induction 1 → Specialised) and staff employees (Schedule B: Groups A → M, plus Graduate Engineer / Commercial Graduate streams) at Australian black coal mines, including mines rescue service employees (Schedule I). Built on a 35-hour week (not 38), with Mineworker Induction 2 as the standard rate. Twenty-percent annual leave loading, five weeks annual leave (six for 7-day-roster workers), 105-hour personal/carer's leave entitlement, an industry-specific redundancy scheme overriding the NES, and accident pay (52 / 78 weeks) - all distinctive against typical awards.
Fully built. Rates, allowances, penalties and any required apprentice / junior rates are all wired to the rate resolver and have been verified against the consolidated award text and the latest pay guide.
Official Fair Work rates. This award’s minimum pay rates are synced directly from the Fair Work Commission’s Modern Awards Pay Database and updated automatically when the Commission changes them - including the annual wage review - so payroll always uses the current legal minimums without a manual update.
What's built
- All 19 cl. A.4 / B.2.1 classifications - Schedule A (Mineworker Induction 1, Induction 2 [STANDARD], Training, Mineworker, Advanced, Specialised) and Schedule B (Staff Groups A through M).
- Apprentice rates: pre-2014 (45 / 60 / 75 / 90% + adult 80 / 90 / 95%) and post-2014 (4 stages with Year-12 split + adult Stage 1 = 80% MWIL2, Stages 2 / 3 = MWIL1 floor).
- Junior rates: Schedule A under-16 / 16 / 17 at 40 / 55 / 75% MWIL2; Schedule B under-17 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 at 65 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 95% Group A.
- Graduate streams: Engineer L1-L3 at 80 / 86 / 94% Group J; Commercial Graduate L1-L3 at 80 / 86 / 94% Group I.
- Twenty-four cl. A.8 / B.3 / I.2 allowances - washery, water money, shaft work, dirty work, confined spaces, height money, first aid (officer + attendant), boom welding, underground, open-cut shift extras, tool, meal, plus the four Mines Rescue stand-by tiers ($108.83 / $198.46 / $128.03 / $256.05).
- 35-hour week with Mineworker Induction 2 as standard rate (cl. 2 line 611) - drives every hourly calculation.
- Saturday penalty stack: day shift first 4 hrs 150% / after 200%, afternoon / rotating night 172.5% / 230%, permanent night 187.5% / 250%. Sunday day 200%, afternoon 230%, perm night 250%. Public holiday day 300%, afternoon 330%, perm night 350%.
- 6 / 7-day-roster employee overtime: 215% outside afternoon / rotating night, 225% outside permanent night (cl. 21.3).
- 20% annual leave loading (NOT 17.5%) with greater-of vs rostered earnings rule.
- Industry-specific redundancy scheme: severance 1 wk / yr always payable + retrenchment 2 wks / yr capped at 30 wks if redundancy due to technological change / market forces / diminution of reserves.
Known limitations
- Casual engagement is restricted by cl. 8.1(c) to Schedule B classifications only - production / engineering employees may only be FT or PT. The schema currently writes a casual hourly rate for all classifications because the column is non-null; the resolver must respect the `casual_only_for_staff_employees` flag and reject casual engagement for any Schedule A classification.
- The 6 / 7-day-roster overtime premiums (215% / 225%) and the regular-weekend-worker exception are roster-driven; the resolver must read `roster_type` from the employee record to pick the right OT rate.
- Mines Rescue Schedule I emergency suspension (cl. I.6.1 - suspends cl. 14, 16.1, 21.7, 22 during deployment) is encoded as configuration but the resolver must consume it; there's no automatic suspension mechanism in the schema today.
- Personal / carer's leave is encoded in hours (105) rather than days - most other awards use days. Resolver must respect both unit types.
- Accident pay (cl. 18 - supplementing workers' comp for 52 / 78 weeks) is encoded as configuration + advanced rule; payroll runtime needs an accident-pay calculation hook outside this seeder.
Setup & special instructions
- Hourly rate calculation uses 35 ordinary hours per week (NOT 38). All weekly-to-hourly conversions divide by 35.
- Standard rate for the award is Mineworker Induction 2 ($1,060.70 / wk) - used for apprentice percentages, allowances expressed as % of standard rate, and Mines Rescue stand-by allowances.
- Annual leave loading is 20% (cl. 24.6(a)), NOT the typical 17.5%. The greater-of comparison is between (a) ordinary rate + 20% loading and (b) rostered earnings including rostered overtime and rostered public holidays at 200%.
- Annual leave entitlement is 5 weeks for general employees, 6 weeks for 7-day-roster and regular weekend workers. Personal / carer's leave is 15 days (105 hours), not the NES 10 days.
- Meal break is 30 min PAID per 5 hours worked (cl. 16.1) - most awards have unpaid meal breaks.
- Pay period is weekly default (cl. 19.1); termination wages must be paid within 72 hours (NOT 7 days) per cl. 19.4.
- • Black coal mining
- • Coal handling and processing
- • Mines rescue service
- • Underground coal mining
- • Open cut coal mining
The consolidated award text is the authoritative source. Always confirm specific obligations against the award itself - Mployr's implementation status reflects what we've seeded; it does not replace legal advice.
Want to see this award running on your data?
We can demo a pay run on the black coal mining award using sample employees in a sandbox tenant - including any of the special-instruction steps above so you can see exactly what your team's day-to-day looks like.
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