Nursery Award
Covers the nursery industry - propagation, planting, growing, cultivation, maintenance, sale, distribution and treating of plant material in plant nurseries, flower / turf / tree farms. Single sector, 7 grades (1A through 6, standard rate Grade 2). Apprentice rates anchored to Grade 4 (Certified Tradesperson) with year-12 split and adult-apprentice rules.
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 7 cl. 15.1 grades at the July 2025 figures.
- Junior rates as proper AwardRate rows for both under-16 (50%) and 16-year-old (60%) bands following the schema enum upgrade - through to 19-year-old (90%); 20+ is adult Grade 1A.
- 4-year apprentice rates anchored to Grade 4, pre-2014 and post-2014 with year-12 split, plus adult-apprentice Year 1 (80% of Grade 4 floor) and Year 2+ (Grade 1A floor) rules.
- First-aid ($17.77/wk) and meal-OT ($17.19) at the corrected July 2025 figures.
- Higher-duties rule and pre-existing-employee continuity rules per cl. 17.2(c).
Known limitations
No outstanding gaps at this revision - re-verify on the next Fair Work pay-guide release.
Setup & special instructions
- Coverage excludes general retail (MA000004), wine (MA000090), silviculture (MA000040) and sugar (MA000087) - confirm employees aren't covered by one of those before assigning the Nursery Award.
- Adult apprentices: Year 1 floor is 80% of Grade 4, Year 2+ floor is Grade 1A - but the post-2014 cl. 17.1(b) percentage applies if higher (greater-of rule).
- • Nursery industry
- • Plant nurseries
- • Horticulture (nursery)
- • Flower / turf / tree farms
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 nursery 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.
Book a demo