An award is a legal document that sets out the terms and conditions of employment for a specific industry or job. It contains things like rates of pay, overtime, penalty rates and allowances.
It is a legally enforceable set of minimum terms and conditions of employment. Awards operate in conjunction with the National Employment Standards (a legislated set of minimum standards), and together they provide a fair and relevant minimum safety net for workers.
An award applies to employees in a particular industry or occupation. The Fair Work Commission has responsibility for making and varying Awards in the national workplace relations system. Unions, such as the SDA, can apply to change or improve Awards that apply for their members.
What this means for you
If you work in the warehousing industry and distribution centres, the relevant Award is the Storage Services & Wholesale Award. The Storage Services & Wholesale Award or Storage Services Award for short, outlines the minimum standards for warehouse and distribution centre workers.
That means workers in distribution centres and the warehousing industry should not receive less overall than the pay and entitlements set out in this Award.
If you work in the warehousing industry and distribution centres, you may be covered by the Storage Services & Wholesale Award or an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement negotiated by the SDA.
Check with the SDA if you’re unsure what applies to you.
The Storage and Wholesale Award covers workers in distribution centres and warehouses.
These include:
- receiving, handling, storing, freezing, refrigerating, bottling, packing produce, goods or merchandise
- preparing produce, goods or merchandise for sale
- sorting, loading, dispatching or delivering produce goods or merchandise
- selling produce, goods or merchandise by wholesale (‘wholesale’ means the sale of items in large quantities to someone other than the final consumer).
It also includes any activities and processes that are connected, incidental or ancillary to these activities.
Examples of employees covered by the Storage and Wholesale Award include:
- storeworkers
- steel distributing employees
- warehouse employees
- wholesale employees
- forklift or ride-on equipment operators.
SDA members have access to exclusive pay and conditions resources.
This is just a snapshot of a handful of entitlements in the General Retail Industry Award – there’s many more.
As part of your SDA union membership, you can access detailed information about your award or agreement. This includes a full copy of your award or agreement.
