The Fair Work Ombudsman recovered $453 million for workers in 2025–26. Nearly half came from large employers, and building and construction accounted for $6.8 million. This isn’t a claim that small builders are the problem. It’s a reason to check your setup before an employee or an inspector does.

This checklist shows what to set up and where to find each rule in the award. No pay rates here. They change every 1 July, so take them from the Fair Work pay guide on the day you set up.

1. Classifications

• Every worker needs a level. The award runs from CW/ECW 1 (with sub-levels a to d) to CW/ECW 8, plus ECW 9 (clause 15 and Schedule A; the rates are in clause 19).

• Apprentices, adult apprentices and trainees need separate setups (clause 14 and Schedule D).

• Leading hands get an extra amount on top of their level (clause 19.2).

Check: confirm every employee has a level in the app, then check it against the work they do now, not the work they started on.

2. Ordinary hours and RDOs

• Ordinary hours are 38 a week (clause 16.1).

• They’re usually worked as 8-hour days, with 0.4 of an hour of each day going towards a rostered day off (clause 16.2).

• An employee and employer can agree to bank RDOs, up to a limit (clause 16.5).

• Banked RDOs are paid out when employment ends (clause 16.7).

Check: use a test employee to find out whether the app builds up RDO hours automatically and pays out banked RDOs when employment ends. Do this before a real employee resigns.

3. Casuals

• Casuals get a 25% loading on ordinary hours (clause 12.4).

• They’re paid for at least 4 hours each time they’re engaged (clause 12.3).

• Their overtime and weekend rates are worked out differently from permanent staff (clause 12.5).

Check: put a 2-hour casual shift through the app. Expect 4 hours.

4. Allowances

MA000020 names allowances that most apps don’t switch on by default. Start with these:

• industry allowance, paid on top of the weekly rate (clause 22)

• tools and protective clothing or equipment (clause 21.1)

• living away from home (clause 25) and travelling time (clause 26)

• inclement weather (clause 24)

• licence and plant allowances, such as the electrician’s licence allowance (clause 23.8)

Schedule B summarises the allowance amounts.

Check: look for each allowance on its own payslip line. For anything rolled into the hourly rate, check that you can show the amount it covers.

5. Overtime and shiftwork

Overtime and weekend rules sit in the award’s overtime and penalty rates clauses, along with public holidays. Shiftwork is in clause 17, with separate rules for civil construction. Compare your app’s settings with the Fair Work pay guide line by line, checking each one against the relevant rule. Don’t trust defaults.

6. Every 1 July

Award rates and allowances usually change from 1 July after the Fair Work Commission’s annual wage review. Set a reminder for the first pay run after 1 July to confirm your app picked up the new rates, including the allowances.

Test it before you trust it

Before the first real pay run, run three made-up timesheets through the app:

1. a normal 8-hour weekday

2. a wet day where the crew is sent home early

3. a Saturday morning

Work each one out by hand from the Fair Work pay guide, or use the Fair Work pay calculator. If the numbers don’t match, fix the setup before anyone gets paid. Keep the three tests and run them again every July.

Who should check the numbers

Use MA000020 on the Fair Work Commission site and the Fair Work pay guides as your references. Have a payroll bookkeeper who knows the construction award sign off the setup. Payroll work that applies PAYG withholding or super rules, done for a fee, is generally a BAS service, so it sits with a registered BAS or tax agent.

Where we fit

At CBD, we don’t set pay rates or run payroll. We connect the pieces around it so timesheets flow from the site app into Xero Payroll without being retyped, and hours land against the right job. If your office copies hours between systems every week, a workflow diagnostic (from $1,200) maps that process and tells you whether the apps you already pay for can do it. Talk to us.