Timber Industry Award
Covers harvesting / forestry, sawmilling, panel products, wood manufacturing, timber merchandising and pulp and paper manufacture. Three pay streams with distinct classification ladders (General Timber 7 levels, Wood and Timber Furniture 8 levels including L4A, Pulp and Paper 9 levels). Standard rate is Level 5. Saw doctor apprentices are a distinct variant anchored to L6.
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
- 10 classifications across the three streams at the July 2025 figures (LEVEL_4A is Wood/Timber Furniture only; LEVEL_8 and LEVEL_9 are Pulp and Paper only).
- Standard apprentice (L5 anchor) and saw-doctor apprentice (L6 anchor) tracks - both 4-year, both with pre-2014 / post-2014 regimes.
- Wood and Timber Furniture adult-apprentice rates per cl. 20.5(a) - 83.5 / 88.3 / 93.4 / 98.5%.
- 5-band junior rates anchored to LEVEL_2.
- Forest work allowance ($34.19/wk, all-purpose) - the signature industry-specific allowance.
- Low loader allowance ($1.82/extra tonne, cl. 22.4).
- Annual leave loading 17.5% (20% for the Pulp and Paper Stream per cl. 28.6).
- Casual public holiday rate 275% in the General Timber Stream (cl. 27.1(d)).
- 25 penalty rows including weekend / PH for day workers, OT brackets, shift loadings, RDO worked, less-than-10h-break, meal-break violations and notice-period violations.
Known limitations
- Schedule H district piece rates (~140 per-tonne cells across Bass / North Coast / South Eastern Tasmania and Murray Valley NSW/Vic) are deferred - schema cannot model per-tonne AwardClassificationRate.
Setup & special instructions
- Each employee must be assigned a stream - general_timber, wood_timber_furniture or pulp_paper - to drive the right classification ladder and stream-specific rules.
- Forest work allowance is all-purpose - it folds into the ordinary hourly rate when assigned.
- Pulp and Paper Stream uses 20% annual leave loading rather than the standard 17.5%.
- General Timber Stream casual public holiday rate is 275% (not the typical 250%).
- • Timber industry
- • Forestry
- • Sawmilling
- • Wood furniture
- • Pulp and paper
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 timber industry 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