JBS Australia & Primo Pay Rates 2026: Boner, Packer & Plant Pay

JBS Australia is the country's largest meat processor, running beef, lamb and pork plants from Dinmore in Queensland to Brooklyn in Victoria, plus the Primo smallgoods business and Huon Aquaculture. Its workforce is boners, slicers, slaughter-floor operators, packers, cold-store and maintenance staff — a large share of them migrant workers on visas.

JBS bargains plant by plant (below). The federal safety net is the Meat Industry Award 2020, tabled below, with the Food, Beverage and Tobacco Manufacturing Award applying at Primo's smallgoods plants. Plant agreements typically pay above the award ladder but the award's classification structure still drives disputes over skill levels.

The federal awards relevant to JBS Australia & Primo roles:

• Meat Industry Award 2020 (MA000059)

Workforce snapshot. In its 2024-25 report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, JBS SA declared 12,982 employees across 8 reporting entities — 6.8% casual and 29.8% women, with 499 in management roles. Source: WGEA 2025 Public Data File, data.gov.au (CC-BY 3.0 AU).

The Meat Industry Award 2020 (MA000059) adult minimums are:

Source: Fair Work Commission modern awards pay database, current-operative rates (1 July 2026 annual wage review). Casual figures add the 25% casual loading.

Enterprise agreements set rates above the award, with their own classification structures and allowances. Current JBS Australia & Primo agreements in our corpus (21 in total):

• JBS Australia Pty Limited - Townsville Enterprise Agreement 2024 — approved January 2025, nominal expiry 21 January 2029.
• JBS Carriers - Enterprise Agreement 2024 — approved August 2024, nominal expiry 2 August 2028.
• JBS Australia Pty Limited - Longford Enterprise Agreement 2025 — approved June 2025, nominal expiry 17 June 2028.
• JBS Rivalea Corowa Farming Operations Enterprise Agreement 2025 — approved June 2025, nominal expiry 10 June 2028.
• JBS Australia Pty Limited - Beef City Production Enterprise Agreement 2025 — approved June 2025, nominal expiry 2 June 2028.
• PRIMO FOODS PTY LTD — approved May 2025, nominal expiry 21 May 2028.
• Primo Foods Pty Ltd - JBS Primo Chullora Greenacre Prestons Enterprise Agreement 2025 — approved May 2025, nominal expiry 21 May 2028.
• PRIMO FOODS PTY LTD – JBS PRIMO WACOL ENTERPRISE AGREEMENT 2025 — approved March 2025, nominal expiry 17 March 2028.

Plus 13 more — search "JBS Australia & Primo" in our agreements database.

We don't reproduce agreement dollar figures here — the agreement covering your site, state and stream is the document to read. Find your agreement, then your classification, then your pay point, and compare it with your payslip. The award tables on this page are the floor every one of these agreements must beat.

General award-compliance issues that come up across the meat processing sector. This is a checklist for your own payslip, not a finding about JBS Australia & Primo:

• Wrong MI level for the skill actually used — trained boners and slicers paid as labourers.
• Unpaid knife-sharpening, PPE and clean-down time.
• Tally and piece-rate systems that fall below the award for the hours worked.
• Visa workers paid below the plant agreement — the same rates apply regardless of visa status.

Match your payslip to your classification in the agreement (or the award tables above), and price any gap with our back-pay calculator. Raise it in writing with payroll or your manager first — most underpayments are fixed at that step. Unresolved, the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) recovers underpayments at no cost, up to six years back, and your union can run the claim for you. Not sure which instrument covers you? Ask our AI advisor with your role and location.