Compass Group (ESS) Pay Rates 2026: Remote Site & Catering Pay

Compass Group employs around 16,300 people in Australia. Its remote and resources arm, ESS, runs village catering, housekeeping and facilities crews on mining and energy sites; other arms include Medirest (health) and Delta FM (facilities). ESS remote work is covered by state-based enterprise agreements — the newest is the Compass Group (ESS Remote – New South Wales and Victoria) Enterprise Agreement 2025 (approved February 2026, nominal expiry 20 February 2030), alongside the ESS Remote – South Australia and Tasmania Agreement 2024 (nominal expiry 11 February 2029). Offshore crews have their own deals, such as the ESS Offshore Oil and Gas (BW Offshore) Enterprise Agreement 2025.

The award underneath village and catering work is the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 (MA000009); dedicated cleaning contracts can instead fall under the Cleaning Services Award. The agreements set actual site rates above the floor — the table below is the minimum they must beat.

Adult minimums for the roles ESS runs on site:

Source: Fair Work Commission modern awards pay database, rates operative from 1 July 2026. Weekend work on the award floor: Saturday 125% and Sunday 150% for permanents (150%/175% for casuals), public holidays 225% permanent / 250% casual.

ESS agreements price the remote reality — swing rosters, long days, camp accommodation — into rostered rates and allowances that the plain award doesn't contemplate. That's allowed, provided the package leaves you better off overall than the award for the hours you actually work. The agreement document (linked above for each region) names your classification, your rostered rate and what it's deemed to include.

The check worth doing once a year: take one full swing, price it at award rates including weekend and overtime penalties with our penalty rates calculator, and compare it to what the agreement paid you. Better off overall means overall — not on the quiet weeks only.

Patterns to watch:

• State-agreement mismatch — being paid under an older or wrong-region agreement after transferring sites.
• Classification squeeze — all-rounders doing cook or supervisory work on utility-level pay.
• Unpaid handover and setup time — kitchen and housekeeping pre-shift work counts.
• Higher duties not paid — relieving a chef or village manager across a swing should carry the higher rate.

Sodexo crews face the same structures — see our Sodexo FIFO pay rates page for the comparison.

Keep roster records and six months of payslips, price the gap with our back-pay calculator, and raise it in writing with your site manager or HR. The UWU covers most of this sector. Unresolved, the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) recovers underpayments at no cost — up to six years back.