Building and Construction General On-site Award MA000020

What it is

The Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020 (MA000020) is the modern award that covers most employees performing on-site construction work in Australia. It sits with Fair Work as the default safety net for residential and commercial builders, civil contractors and the trades they directly employ.

The award applies whenever a worker is engaged in on-site general building and construction work in the building, engineering or civil sectors and the work is not covered by another award (such as the Joinery Award MA000029 for off-site joinery, or the Electrical Award MA000025 for electrical work).

Classifications CW1 to CW8

MA000020 uses a Construction Worker classification structure from Level CW1 to Level CW8. Each level lines up with a minimum hourly rate and weekly wage.

CW1 to CW3

CW1 covers entry-level construction workers and labourers without specific trade qualifications. CW2 is a worker with broader experience or a basic level of skill (for example, a builder labourer plus). CW3 is the standard tradesperson level for carpenters, bricklayers, plasterers and most licensed trades.

CW4 to CW8

CW4 to CW8 cover trades with higher qualifications or supervisory responsibility. CW5 typically applies to tradespeople with post-trade qualifications or special class skills. Higher levels apply to leading hands, foremen, advanced tradespersons and supervisors. The exact alignment depends on the qualifications, certificate IV outcomes and competencies the worker holds.

The schedule of classification descriptors sits in Schedule A of the award. The Fair Work Pay Guide for MA000020 publishes the current hourly and weekly rates for each level after each Annual Wage Review.

Allowances and travel

The award contains a deep list of allowances that often trip up residential builders running their first PAYG crew. The key ones are:

Daily fares allowance

A daily fares allowance is payable for each day an employee is required to start and finish work on a construction site. The amount is set in the award and reviewed annually. This is paid regardless of whether the employee uses their own car, a company vehicle or public transport.

Travel pattern allowance

Where an employee is required to travel to and from work at a site, a travel pattern allowance applies on top of the daily fares allowance. This compensates for the time spent travelling outside the spread of hours.

Other allowances

Standard residential sites also attract:

• Meal allowance after specified overtime
• Tool allowance for trades supplying their own hand tools
• Industry allowance covering disabilities of working in the construction industry
• Special allowance for confined spaces, heights, hot or wet work
• First aid allowance for the nominated first aider
• Leading hand allowance for site leaders

Each allowance carries an exact dollar figure that the Fair Work Commission updates annually. Builders should pull the current Pay Guide each July rather than carry over last year's rates.

Ordinary hours and the 36-hour week

The award sets ordinary hours as 38 per week worked as part of a 38-hour week with one rostered day off (RDO) every 20 working days. The practical outcome on most residential sites is a 36-hour working week with the RDO accrued from a 0.4 hour daily contribution.

The award also sets the RDO calendar at industry level. The construction industry RDOs published by Fair Work each year align with the major building industry agreements. Crews are not entitled to take an RDO whenever they like: the day is rostered by the employer subject to the award rules.

Spread of hours

The spread of ordinary hours is between 7:00 am and 6:00 pm Monday to Friday. Work outside that window attracts overtime rates. Saturday work runs at time and a half for the first two hours and double time after that. Sunday work runs at double time.

Where MA000020 sits in residential building

For an Australian residential builder running their own crew on a PAYG basis, MA000020 is almost always the governing instrument. Even one underpaid week (for example missing the daily fares allowance or paying RDO time as straight hours) generates back-pay liability that compounds across the crew.

Common compliance issues include:

• Paying a flat hourly rate that swallows the allowances rather than itemising them
• Treating CW3 as the cap when a leading hand should be on a higher level
• Missing the RDO payments when a crew works through
• Skipping the meal allowance after the required two hours of overtime

The award text is the source of truth and the Fair Work Pay Guide is the operational reference for current rates.