Black Coal Mining Industry Award
Covers production / engineering employees (Schedule A: Mineworker Induction 1 → Specialised) and staff employees (Schedule B: Groups A → M, plus Graduate Engineer / Commercial Graduate streams) at Australian black coal mines, including mines rescue service employees (Schedule I). Built on a 35-hour week (not 38), with Mineworker Induction 2 as the standard rate. Twenty-percent annual leave loading, five weeks annual leave (six for 7-day-roster workers), 105-hour personal/carer's leave entitlement, an industry-specific redundancy scheme overriding the NES, and accident pay (52 / 78 weeks) - all distinctive against typical awards.
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.
What's built
- All 19 cl. A.4 / B.2.1 classifications - Schedule A (Mineworker Induction 1, Induction 2 [STANDARD], Training, Mineworker, Advanced, Specialised) and Schedule B (Staff Groups A through M).
- Apprentice rates: pre-2014 (45 / 60 / 75 / 90% + adult 80 / 90 / 95%) and post-2014 (4 stages with Year-12 split + adult Stage 1 = 80% MWIL2, Stages 2 / 3 = MWIL1 floor).
- Junior rates: Schedule A under-16 / 16 / 17 at 40 / 55 / 75% MWIL2; Schedule B under-17 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 at 65 / 70 / 80 / 90 / 95% Group A.
- Graduate streams: Engineer L1-L3 at 80 / 86 / 94% Group J; Commercial Graduate L1-L3 at 80 / 86 / 94% Group I.
- Twenty-four cl. A.8 / B.3 / I.2 allowances - washery, water money, shaft work, dirty work, confined spaces, height money, first aid (officer + attendant), boom welding, underground, open-cut shift extras, tool, meal, plus the four Mines Rescue stand-by tiers ($108.83 / $198.46 / $128.03 / $256.05).
- 35-hour week with Mineworker Induction 2 as standard rate (cl. 2 line 611) - drives every hourly calculation.
- Saturday penalty stack: day shift first 4 hrs 150% / after 200%, afternoon / rotating night 172.5% / 230%, permanent night 187.5% / 250%. Sunday day 200%, afternoon 230%, perm night 250%. Public holiday day 300%, afternoon 330%, perm night 350%.
- 6 / 7-day-roster employee overtime: 215% outside afternoon / rotating night, 225% outside permanent night (cl. 21.3).
- 20% annual leave loading (NOT 17.5%) with greater-of vs rostered earnings rule.
- Industry-specific redundancy scheme: severance 1 wk / yr always payable + retrenchment 2 wks / yr capped at 30 wks if redundancy due to technological change / market forces / diminution of reserves.
Known limitations
- Casual engagement is restricted by cl. 8.1(c) to Schedule B classifications only - production / engineering employees may only be FT or PT. The schema currently writes a casual hourly rate for all classifications because the column is non-null; the resolver must respect the `casual_only_for_staff_employees` flag and reject casual engagement for any Schedule A classification.
- The 6 / 7-day-roster overtime premiums (215% / 225%) and the regular-weekend-worker exception are roster-driven; the resolver must read `roster_type` from the employee record to pick the right OT rate.
- Mines Rescue Schedule I emergency suspension (cl. I.6.1 - suspends cl. 14, 16.1, 21.7, 22 during deployment) is encoded as configuration but the resolver must consume it; there's no automatic suspension mechanism in the schema today.
- Personal / carer's leave is encoded in hours (105) rather than days - most other awards use days. Resolver must respect both unit types.
- Accident pay (cl. 18 - supplementing workers' comp for 52 / 78 weeks) is encoded as configuration + advanced rule; payroll runtime needs an accident-pay calculation hook outside this seeder.
Setup & special instructions
- Hourly rate calculation uses 35 ordinary hours per week (NOT 38). All weekly-to-hourly conversions divide by 35.
- Standard rate for the award is Mineworker Induction 2 ($1,060.70 / wk) - used for apprentice percentages, allowances expressed as % of standard rate, and Mines Rescue stand-by allowances.
- Annual leave loading is 20% (cl. 24.6(a)), NOT the typical 17.5%. The greater-of comparison is between (a) ordinary rate + 20% loading and (b) rostered earnings including rostered overtime and rostered public holidays at 200%.
- Annual leave entitlement is 5 weeks for general employees, 6 weeks for 7-day-roster and regular weekend workers. Personal / carer's leave is 15 days (105 hours), not the NES 10 days.
- Meal break is 30 min PAID per 5 hours worked (cl. 16.1) - most awards have unpaid meal breaks.
- Pay period is weekly default (cl. 19.1); termination wages must be paid within 72 hours (NOT 7 days) per cl. 19.4.
- • Black coal mining
- • Coal handling and processing
- • Mines rescue service
- • Underground coal mining
- • Open cut coal mining
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 black coal mining 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.
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