After a long period of confusion for employers and employees the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) has provided advice to the Outdoor Recreation Industry on award coverage for Outdoor Leaders.
The advice finally makes it clear that adventure tour guides, expedition leaders, outdoor camp activity instructors and outdoor camp group leaders are subject to award coverage.
Until this advice it has been unclear if employees in the outdoor sector were fully covered by awards or if some employees were “award free employees” which would mean that only the National Employment Standard (NES) would apply to their work.
Furthermore the FWO’s advice also indicates that Outdoor Leaders working on overnight programs where they are unable to leave clients as they have a round the clock duty of care, must be paid for all hours they are at work (including while sleeping), unless the relevant award has a sleepover rate.
There are various other elements to the advice from the FWO which are of interest and I look forward to highlighting many of the issues raised in future posts.
Cheers Tim