Modern Award changes – Fact Sheet 1 – Overview

This includes workers carrying out general building and construction work on a building site, such as:

• any construction, alteration, extension, restoration, repair, maintenance, demolition or dismantling of buildings, structures or works that form part of land;
• site clearance work including earth-moving, excavation and site restoration work; and
• any landscaping work or installation work associated with a general building and construction project.

Members with employees covered by the Onsite Award should be aware of the following provisions. 

Travel Allowance

This allowance is payable to an employee where:

• they travel to work on a construction site; or
• they perform prefabricated work in an open yard and then erect or fix on-site.

It will not be paid where:

• you offer or provide an employee with transport to and from work; or
• where the employee is provided with a fully maintained vehicle.

Rostered Days Off (RDOs)

The ordinary hours of work in the Onsite Award operate with an RDO system. 

This system is as follows:

• an employee works 8 hours each day (40 hours per week);
• they are paid for 7.6 of those hours (38 hours per week); and
• the additional 0.4 hours per day (2 hours per week) accumulates to a paid day off following 19 days of work.

The employer and employee can also agree to the banking of RDO’s and when the RDO can be taken.

Time off instead of payment for overtime

Employers and employees can agree to accrue overtime worked and for the employee to take leave in lieu of payment.

The time in lieu will accrue at the rate of the additional hours worked, not at the rate of payment for the overtime.  For example, one hour of overtime worked, equals one hour of time accrued. 

Industry allowance

The industry allowance is paid in addition to an employee’s weekly rate of pay. The applicable allowance is based on the industry sector that the employer operates, as opposed to the type of work the employee is engaged in. For example, the allowance for workers in the residential building industry is different to that for workers who carry out commercial construction work.

Living away from home allowance

Living away from home allowances are payable under the Onsite Award where an employee is:

• working on construction work at such a distance from their usual place of residence or any separately maintained residence; and
• they cannot reasonably return to that place each night.

Tool allowance

The tool allowance compensates tradespersons for the maintenance and provision of their standard tools of trade.

Annual leave loading

Annual leave loading is an additional payment made on top of an employee’s ordinary time hourly rate when they take annual leave.  During a period of annual leave an employee must be paid:

• their ordinary time hourly; plus 
• a loading of 17.5% calculated on the employee’s ordinary time hourly rate.

This information is part of a series of updates on the Modern Award changes aimed at assisting members understand the requirements. More information can be found in the articles in the ‘What to read next’ section.