Vehicle Repair, Services and Retail Award
Covers automotive workshops, dealerships, dismantlers, fuel retailers (driveway/console/roadhouse), tow truck operators, and motorcycle/agricultural vehicle businesses. The award splits employees into THREE rule-set groups - main RS&R + driver employees follow the standard cl 22-26 ord hours/OT/shift/breaks; fuel retail attendants follow cl 27 with their own penalty/OT structure (PH at 200%, not 250%) and dollar-quoted casual rates; vehicle salespeople follow cl 28 with 1.5 days/wk free of duty, commission rules, Sunday paid as a flat $ amount, and an overhead vehicle allowance + per-km combo. Standard rate is the R6 tradesperson level ($1,068.40/wk).
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 RS&R classifications (R1-R7, $922.70-$1,168.90/wk) and 9 driver classifications ($1,014.60-$1,068.40/wk) at corrected July 2025 figures.
- Junior rate matrix: cl 16.6(a) 5 age tiers anchored to L1 (47.5/50/62.5/75/87.5%); cl 16.6(c) same tiers anchored to L4; cl 16.7 driver juniors 70/80/100% - all seeded as AwardRate dimensional rows.
- Apprentice rates: junior cl 16.9 4 stages × Y12/non-Y12 split (50/55, 60/65, 75, 88%); adult cl 16.10 4 stages floor-anchored (80% R6, then R1/R2/R3 floors).
- Driver wage-related allowances (cl 16.4): commercial $2.03/wk per tonne over 8t; empty trailer $2.63/day; loaded trailer $4.76/day; articulated $1.92/wk per tonne over 10t; tow truck $26.92/wk STAND-ALONE.
- 30+ allowances incl. 3-tier leading hand all-purpose, 5-tier driver handling money, confined spaces, dirty work + minimum, hot/wet places, glass/slag wool, garbage, livestock, tyre slicking, large tyre offsite, fork-lift multi-machine, plus apprentice tool allowances per stage.
- FT/PT/casual penalty rates (cl 23/24): Sat 150%, Sun 200%, PH 250% with 4-hour minimum; OT Mon-Sat 150% first 3hrs / 200% after, Sun 200%, PH 250%. Cl 24.4 OT substitutes shift loadings (non-cumulative).
- All 6 cl 25.2 shift loadings (night only 130%, afternoon only 118%, alt aft/night 120%, three 112.5% alternating variants) plus cl 25.3 non-continuous shift premium 150%.
- Fuel retail (cl 27) special structure: permanent Sat morning ord, Sat after noon 150%, Sun 150%, PH 200% (not 250%); permanent OT Mon-Sat 150/200, Sun 200, PH 200; casual dollar-quoted rates per Schedule B with 4 junior age tiers; under-18 prohibitions (no unsupervised 7-9pm; no work 9pm-6.30am).
- Vehicle salesperson (cl 28) special structure: 1.5 days/wk free of duty (or 3/fortnight); double-time day-off work (2/5 weekly >half day, 1/5 ≤half); double-and-half PH (1/2, 1/4); flat $ Sunday penalty ($213.68 / $106.84); commission accrues on delivery; overhead vehicle allowance ($219.64 ≤20hp / $244.09 >20hp + $0.26/$0.29 per km).
- Garage/tow call-back (cl 24.9) flat 200% with 2hr first-call min, 1hr subsequent (DISTINCTIVE - most awards use OT tiered structure).
- Working through meal break = 150% (cl 26.2 - distinctive; most awards 200%); fail-to-rest 200% until 10hr break taken; 26-week accident pay (cl 20).
- All 5 default super funds per cl 21.4 (substituted by PR794781 ppc 23 Jan 2026): AustralianSuper, Team Superannuation Fund, CareSuper, HOSTPLUS, REST.
Known limitations
- The vehicle salesperson Sunday flat-$ penalty (cl 28.3(c)) is stored as an AwardAllowance row (closest schema fit); resolver must apply it via the cl 28.3(c) rule rather than treating it as a multiplier of hourly.
- Day-off and PH penalties for vehicle salespeople (cl 28.3(a)/(b)) are weekly-fraction calculations (2/5, 1/5, 1/2, 1/4) - captured in configs; the payroll engine must compute weekly × fraction rather than apply a multiplier.
- Fuel retail casual rates published as dollar amounts in Schedule B - captured as percentage configs (131.75% Mon-Fri, 171.87% Sat/Sun/PH, 73.40% OT additional × R-level). Resolver computes from R-level rate × percentage.
- Driver wage-related per-tonne allowances (commercial over 8t, articulated over 10t) are conditional on actual vehicle tonnage; resolver multiplies the per-tonne amount by `(tonnes - 8)` or `(tonnes - 10)` from the employment context.
- Combined disabilities rule (cl 18.15) - dirty/garbage/livestock allowances NOT cumulative (highest only); other cl 18 disabilities DO accumulate. Captured as config flag; resolver must apply max-only logic when multiple of those three trigger.
- Tyre fitter Thu/Fri 8-9.30pm 25% extra (cl 18.16) is scoped via employment_types JSON marker; the schema can't natively combine day-of-week + time + employment-type predicate so the resolver must compose them.
Setup & special instructions
- Three employee groups follow DIFFERENT rule sets - main RS&R/driver employees (cl 22-26), fuel retail attendants (cl 27), vehicle salespeople (cl 28). Multiple cls 22.1, 23.1, 24.1, 25.1, 26.1 explicitly exclude fuel retail and sales from main provisions. The seeder uses 6 pay conditions plus employment_types JSON markers on penalty rows to scope this.
- Tow truck driver allowance (cl 16.4(c) - $26.92/wk) is STAND-ALONE - NOT subject to penalty additions. Don't multiply this by Sat/Sun/PH or OT rates.
- Garage employees and tow truck drivers/assistants get a flat 200% call-back rate with 2-hour first-call minimum (cl 24.9) - distinctive. Don't use the standard 150/200 OT tiered structure for these call-backs.
- Working through a meal break is 150% (cl 26.2(b)) - NOT 200% like most other awards. Distinctive carve-out.
- Fuel retail PUBLIC HOLIDAY rate is 200% (NOT 250%) for both ordinary and OT (cl 27.4(a)(iv) and 27.5(b)). Permanent driveway/console/roadhouse attendants don't get the standard 250% PH penalty.
- Vehicle salesperson Sunday work is paid as a flat dollar amount IN ADDITION to the minimum weekly rate - $213.68 if more than half a day worked, $106.84 if half or less. NOT a multiplier of the hourly rate.
- • Automotive
- • Vehicle repair
- • Vehicle servicing
- • Vehicle retail
- • Motor mechanic
- • Panel beater
- • Spray painter
- • Tyre fitter
- • Fuel retail
- • Service station
- • Roadhouse
- • Tow truck
- • Vehicle dealership
- • Vehicle salesperson
- • Agricultural vehicle
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 vehicle 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