Example: Employee understanding their entitlements come from different places

Mike works onsite in the construction industry as a joiner.

As Mike is covered by the Building and Construction Award, his rate of pay and other entitlements (like breaks) come from that award. He uses the free Pay and Conditions Tool to check pay rates and allowances under his award.

Mike wants to better understand his sick and carer’s leave entitlements. His award says that these come from the NES, so he checks the Sick and carer’s leave section and reads about what he’s entitled to. He also uses the Pay and Conditions Tool to calculate his future leave balance.

Mike also has an employment contract. He reads on fairwork.gov.au that employment contracts can also have additional terms about employment, but these terms can’t be less than an employee’s minimum entitlements. Mike remembers this for future reference.

Example: Employer works out classification for employee

Ramon is hiring employees to operate his new excavators with bucket capacity of up to 0.4 cubic metres.

Ramon knows that his business is covered by the Building and Construction Award. But he’s not sure of his employee’s classification levels. To work this out, Ramon reads through the classification descriptions in Schedule A of the award.

Ramon sees that ‘construction worker level 4’ covers employees operating excavators of up to and including 0.5 cubic metre capacity. He also reads the other skills required for a level 4 employee and decides this is the most appropriate level.

Ramon advises his employees of their award and classification. He bookmarks the free Pay and Conditions Tool to help calculate pay rates and allowances in the future.

Example: Employee calculates an allowance / penalty rate

Phil is a plasterer. He’s a construction worker level 3 under the Building and Construction Award.

Phil will be working on a public holiday for the first time and wants to know his pay rate. He finds the Pay and Conditions Tool on fairwork.gov.au and answers the various questions about his job.

The Pay and Conditions Tool then calculates his hourly rate and industry allowances. It also calculates other allowances and penalties that he selected.

Phil works out his public holiday pay. He also favourites a link to the tool for use in the future.

Example: Employee checks overtime entitlements

Rachel is a concrete spreader working for a large concreting business. She normally works at building sites but has been rostered to work on the new highway project. Rachel works the day shift from Tuesday to Saturday.

Rachel isn’t paid overtime for her Saturday shift. She sees that fairwork.gov.au has information about overtime. Rachel uses the industry filter option on the When overtime applies page to read about the overtime rules that apply under her award.

Rachel finds out that civil construction shiftworkers don’t get overtime when working ordinary hours on a Saturday. Now she knows the overtime rules that apply for the different worksites.

Example: Inclement weather entitlements

Dan is a brickie working on a residential construction site without any covered working areas.

The weather turns while he is working at the building site. It starts to rain heavily and the weather forecast predicts hail.

Dan’s foreman, Angelo, directs him and his workmates to stop working. Dan asks whether they will still get paid. Angelo confirms that all employees will continue to get their usual pay because they are stopping work due to inclement weather.

Angelo says he will let Dan and his workmates know when it will be safe to work again.

Payment for time lost due to inclement weather is a maximum of 32 hours in a 4 week period.

Example: Employee accrues an RDO

Ravi works in the building and construction industry.

The work hours at his workplace are 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week. Ravi gets paid 38 hours a week. The extra time worked accrues towards a paid day off.

Ravi gets a paid RDO once every 4 weeks.

Example: Redundancy entitlements for an employee

Gary worked as a labourer for a small construction project business for 11 months. He was covered by the Building and Construction Award.

Gary’s role was made redundant as the project finished.

The industry specific redundancy scheme in the Building and Construction Award entitles Gary to redundancy pay, even though he has worked less than a year.

Gary uses the Pay and Conditions Tool to calculate how much he is entitled to. Based on his 11 months service, the tool says Gary is entitled to 82.25 hours of redundancy pay.