Rights & Responsibilities

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Working on the Land - FAQs

1. What is the rate of pay for a shed hand and a shearer?
   
   
2. I run a rural fencing business and I want to employ labourers to help. What should I pay them?
   
   
3. I employ a number of staff in a small business and they all have a couple of weeks annual and long service leave owing to them. Due to a lack of work at the moment, can I ask the staff to take the leave that is owing to them?
   
   
4. Due to a downtown in business I can no longer offer my employee full time work. This may change in the future and I do not want to terminate the employee.  What options do I have?

Q1:  What is the rate of pay for a shed hand and a shearer?

A1:  Shed hands and shearers are covered by the Pastoral Employees (State) Award if the employer is a sole trader or partnership.  For current rates of pay under this award. 

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Q2:  I run a rural fencing business and I want to employ labourers to help.  What should I pay them?

A2:  If the business is only doing rural fencing on farms, then the Building and Construction Industry (State) award would apply if the employer is a sole trader or a partnership. The classification under this award would be a construction worker and to view the current rates of pay for Building and Construction Industry (State) award.

Q3:  I employ a number of staff in a small business and they all have a couple of weeks annual and long service leave owing to them. Due to a lack of work at the moment, can I ask the staff to take the leave that is owing to them?

A3:  Yes, under the NSW Annual Holidays Act 1944 and the NSW Long Service Leave Act 1955, the employer can instruct staff to take any accrued leave by way of 4 weeks notice to the employee. Also, after discussing the situation with your staff, and by agreement, you may be able to allow staff to access leave before it is due. 

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Q4:  Due to a downtown in business I can no longer offer my employee full time work. This may change in the future and I do not want to terminate the employee.  What options do I have?

A4:  There a couple of options to consider in maintaining employment but on a reduced status of employment. The key issue is to keep the employee fully informed on what is happening. This may make it easier and give them an understanding of the situation. One option is discuss a reduction in the hours worked from full-time to part-time. This can only happen if the employee agrees. If there is agreement, confirm the new arrangement in writing, detailing the new hours, what days those hours will be worked and the period the change will last for. This should also be followed up by a part-time work agreement. For more information on part-time work agreements.

If the employee does not want to discuss the option of a reduction in hours to part-time employment, the other option will be to explore the possibility of either standing down an employee due to current situation, or exploring leave without pay. Prior to standing down an employee, discussion needs to have occurred with the employee, explaining the situation, and all avenues explored. Once this process has occurred, and there is still no agreement, an application can be made to the NSW Industrial Relations Commission seeking to stand down the employee for a period of time due to your inability to offer useful employment. For more information about standing down employees, contact the NSW OIR on 131 628.