Plumbing & Fire Sprinklers Award.

Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award 2020 (MA000036) covers plumbing, gasfitting, roof plumbing, mechanical services and related industries. Common roles include plumbing, gasfitting, roof plumbing, lead burning. The award has three employment types, not two: daily hire, weekly hire and casual. Daily hire is open only to plumbing and mechanical services classifications, never to sprinkler fitters or apprentices, and carries one day's notice either way plus a 3.17% lost time loading (the follow-the-job allowance) that compensates for a notional 8 days of unemployment a year. Rates are quoted all-purpose: the industry and special fixed allowances are built into every rate, the plumbing trade allowance from Worker Level 2 up, and the registration allowance for registered tradespersons, so penalties and overtime compound on the loaded rate. The special fixed allowance is frozen at $7.70 a week by clause 21.3(d)(ii) and does not move with the Annual Wage Review. Ordinary hours are 7.00am to 6.00pm Monday to Friday on a 20-day, 4-week cycle: 19 eight-hour days with 0.4 hours a day accruing to a paid RDO each cycle. Saturday is 150% for the first 2 hours then 200%, Sunday 200%, public holidays 250%, and there is a single 133% shift loading that only applies with 48 hours' notice and 5 or more consecutive shifts, otherwise the 150%/200% split applies instead. Only one penalty applies at a time and penalties do not apply where overtime is payable. Casual loading is 25% and it does stack on overtime under this award. Annual leave loading is 17.5% calculated on the all-purpose rate and on fares and travelling time allowances. A fifth week of annual leave goes not only to continuous shiftworkers but to anyone who works or is on call for any part of 26 or more weekends in a year. The award is both an industry and an occupational award, so a plumber working for an employer in another industry can still be covered.

Full-time and part-time employees are paid 150% of their base hourly rate for the first 2 hours worked on Saturday, then 200% for any hours after that. Casual employees receive an additional 25% casual loading on top.

FT/PT employees are paid 200% of the base hourly rate (2.00x) for Sunday work. Casuals receive 225% (the FT rate plus the 25% casual loading). This is one of the higher Sunday rates in the modern-award system.

FT/PT employees who work on a gazetted public holiday are paid 250% of the base hourly rate (2.50x). Casuals receive 275% (the FT rate plus the 25% casual loading). Employees who don't work the holiday receive their ordinary day's pay if it would otherwise have been a working day.

Standard full-time employees get 4 weeks of paid annual leave per year under the NES. Continuous shiftworkers, meaning employees engaged to work a system of consecutive shifts throughout the 24 hours of each of at least 6 consecutive days without interruption and regularly rostered to those shifts, receive a 5th week of annual leave. So does any employee who works or is required to be on call for any part of 26 weekends or more in a year of employment (clause 24.2(a)). The 5-week entitlement comes from NES s.87(1)(b), which the Plumbing & Fire Sprinklers Award classifies eligibility for. Calculate annual leave accrual →

Yes. 17.5% loading is paid on the minimum hourly rate during periods of paid annual leave. There is no shift-worker variation in this award, so the loading is a flat 17.5% across employee types. Leave loading calculator →

25% on top of the base hourly rate, in lieu of paid annual leave, paid personal leave and notice entitlements. Casual loading is added to the FT/PT rate when a casual works any of the penalty-rate hours above (Saturday, Sunday, public holiday, evening, night).

Yes. 20-day, 4-week cycle of 19 eight-hour days, with 0.4 hours a day accruing to one paid rostered day off each cycle (clause 15.2(b)). Clause 15.5(e) nominates the 3rd Friday, 4th Monday or 4th Friday of the cycle, and the 4th Monday is fixed for employees working alongside other building and construction workers. RDOs are paid days off, distinct from annual leave; they exist to balance ordinary hours over a fixed period. If you are paid out on termination, accrued RDO time is typically included.

Yes. Under this award, evening work shift finishing after 6pm and at or before 7am Mon-Fri attracts 133% of the base hourly rate (1.33x); night-shift work attracts 133% of the base hourly rate (1.33x). Casuals receive an additional 25% casual loading on top of these penalty rates.

Pay rates by classification under MA000036 change quarterly with Fair Work Commission Annual Wage Review decisions. The official source is the FWO Pay Calculator, which always reflects the current rates. Open the FWO Pay Calculator →