Broadcasting, Recorded Entertainment and Cinemas Award
TV, Radio, Journalists and Cinema sectors are seeded - covers the bulk of broadcaster, station, newsroom and cinema operations. Schedule D (Performers), Schedule F (Musicians) and Schedule G (Motion Picture Production) are NOT yet supported because they have radically different engagement and call-rate structures that don't fit the standard weekly-rate model.
Partially built. Core rates and the most-used allowances are in place, but specific clauses or cohorts are still on the to-do list. Read the limitations section before relying on this award for your payroll.
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
- TV, Radio, Journalists and Cinema sector classifications - ~33 distinct rate tiers covering the 100+ named roles in the pay guide.
- Common penalties - Saturday 150%, Sunday 175%, public holiday 250%.
- Sector-specific shift loadings: TV night shift, TV permanent night, radio stand-by, cinema break-between-shifts.
- All-purpose director's allowance set (5 separate director's grades) for TV broadcasting - folded into the ordinary hourly rate when the role flag is set.
- Cadet journalists modelled as 3-year apprentices (Y1+Y2 same rate, Y3 higher) per the consolidated award.
Known limitations
- Performers (Schedule D) NOT seeded - uses hourly minimum-call rates and post-synch hourly minimum-call structures with engagement-based pay. Needs a dedicated seeder.
- Musicians (Schedule F) NOT seeded - Principal Player +25% / Leader +33.3% loadings with per-call rates and per-engagement allowances. Needs a dedicated seeder.
- Motion Picture Production (Schedule G) NOT seeded - feature-film weekly engagements with stand-in / double / extra / bit-player / performer-class loadings (e.g. $467-$535 per episode in excess of 5). Needs a dedicated seeder.
- Standard rate (cl. 13.3) refers to a Grade 5 entertainment employee, but the pay guide doesn't enumerate a literal Grade 5 - we map it to TV_OPERATOR_APLUS ($1,165.70/wk) as the closest match.
- Back pack allowance is stored as a single $3.00 midpoint placeholder - actual amounts in the pay guide vary by camera classification ($2.67-$3.80 per shift). May need classification-specific sub-allowance rows for precise rostering.
- Cadet journalists are stored under apprentice_variant='3_year' as a schema reuse - they are NOT technically apprentices.
Setup & special instructions
- Match each named role to the closest seeded rate tier - the pay guide enumerates 100+ specific named roles but most share base rates within their sector. The 33 tiers we seeded cover the distinct rate points.
- TV technical maintenance / videotape allowances are stored as PERCENTAGES (e.g. 6.00 means 6%). The resolver interprets these as percentages of the employee's minimum hourly rate, not absolute dollar amounts.
- If you employ performers, musicians or motion-picture production crew, contact support - those schedules need bespoke handling that's not yet in the platform.
- For TV directors, set the role flag to the appropriate director's-grade allowance code so the right grade flows into the ordinary hourly rate.
- • Broadcasting
- • Television
- • Radio
- • Cinemas
- • Journalism
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 broadcasting & cinemas 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