Water Industry Award
Covers the water industry - harvesting (including by desalination), transportation, storage, treatment and supply of water; plus the harvesting, transportation, storage, treatment and recycling of waste water, stormwater and sewerage. Single sector (unlike Local Government), 10 levels, standard rate Level 4. Apprentices are included with both 4-year and 3-year variants.
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 10 cl. 15.1 levels at the July 2025 figures.
- Junior rates: 5 age bands from under-17 (55%) through 20 (95%).
- 4-year and 3-year apprentice rates anchored to Level 4, pre-2014 (no Y12 split) and post-2014 (with Y12 split).
- Day workers Mon-Fri 6am-6pm span (alterable ±2 hours, max 12 hours total). Average 38 hours per week over a 28-day period.
- Two day-arrangement options - 10-day fortnight (7.6h/day) or 9-day fortnight (8h 20min / day with RDO).
- Saturday and Sunday work for day workers is OVERTIME, not ordinary (cl. 20.1(a)) - there is no Saturday or Sunday ordinary-hours penalty row.
- Call-back minimum 4 hours.
Known limitations
No outstanding gaps at this revision - re-verify on the next Fair Work pay-guide release.
Setup & special instructions
- Saturday and Sunday work for day workers is OVERTIME, NOT ordinary hours. Don't expect a weekend ordinary-rate row.
- Day worker span (Mon-Fri 6am-6pm) may be altered by ±2 hours at either end by agreement, but cannot exceed 12 hours total.
- There are no leading-hand, vehicle, sleepover etc. allowances - none exist in this award.
- • Water industry
- • Water supply
- • Wastewater
- • Sewerage
- • Desalination
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 water 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