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Table of content
- What is the Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award?
- Who is covered by the Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award?
- How are the hours of work arranged in the Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award?
- How are wages and allowances calculated in the Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award?
- How is the leave managed in the Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award?
- How can Workstem assist you?
This article provides guidelines on the plumbing and fire sprinklers award guide. For more information on this award, please refer to the plumbing and fire sprinklers award.
What is the Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award?
The Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award is a set of legal minimum employment standards and conditions that apply to employees working in the plumbing and/or fire sprinkler fitting services industry in Australia.
The award sets out the minimum wage rates, working hours, overtime, annual leave, sick leave, and other entitlements for employees working in various roles within the plumbing and/or fire sprinkler fitting services industry, such as plumber’s laborers and sprinkler fitter’s assistants,qualified plumbers and gasfitters,apprentice plumbers and gasfitters
sprinkler fitter tradespersons.The award is designed to ensure that employees in the plumbing and/or fire sprinkler fitting services industry are treated fairly and receive reasonable pay and conditions for their work.
Who is covered by the Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award?
Coverage
The Plumbing Award covers:
- employers and their employees in the plumbing and/or fire sprinkler fitting services industry
- employers employing plumbing or fire sprinkler fitting employees.
Plumbing services include:
- plumbing
- gas fitting
- roof plumbing
- lead burning
- ship plumbing
- heating, air-conditioning or ventilation plumbing
- irrigation installing
- pipe-fitting
- domestic engineering work.
The plumbing industry also includes any work in or in connection with:
- sheet lead, galvanised iron, other types of sheet metal or any other materials usually fixed by plumbers
- lead, wrought, cast or sheet iron, copper, brass or other classes of pipework
- water (hot and cold), steam, gas, air, vacuum, heating or ventilation applications, fittings, services or installations
- house, ship, sanitary, chemical or general plumbing or draining and irrigation.
Fire sprinkler fitting services means work on automatic fire sprinkler extinguishers and/or other fire protection systems such as:
- erecting, fitting, fixing, altering, inspecting, testing, maintaining, retrofitting, overhauling or repairing apparatus, pipes and/or fittings in and/or outside of:
- buildings
- ships
- other structures.
Fire sprinkler fitting services means work on automatic fire sprinkler extinguishers and/or other fire protection systems such as:
- erecting, fitting, fixing, altering, inspecting, testing, maintaining, retrofitting, overhauling or repairing apparatus, pipes and/or fittings in and/or outside of:
- buildings
- ships
- other structures.
Examples of employers and employees covered by the Plumbing Award include:
- plumber’s labourers and sprinkler fitter’s assistants
- qualified plumbers and gasfitters
- apprentice plumbers and gasfitters
- irrigation installers
- fire technicians
- sprinkler fitter tradespersons.
How are the hours of work arranged in the Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award?
Ordinary hours of work
The average ordinary hours worked will be 38 per week for a 4 week work cycle.
- Ordinary working hours will be worked in a 20 day, 4 week cycle, Monday to Friday inclusive.
- The roster will be comprised of 19 days of 8 hours with 0.4 of one hour each day worked accruing to be paid as a rostered day off (RDO) in each cycle.
- Early start and Penalty rates, ordinary hours are worked between 7.00 am and 6.00 pm Monday to Friday inclusive.
Breaks
|
Unpaid meal breaks |
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Variation of meal breaks |
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Paid rest period |
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Washing time breaks as paid time |
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How are wages and allowances calculated in the Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award?
Overtime
|
Day |
Full-time and part-time employees
( % ordinary hourly rate) |
Casual employees
(% ordinary hourly rate) |
||
|
Monday to Friday—all employees |
First 2 hours |
150% |
175% | |
| After 2 hours | 200% |
225% |
||
| Saturday—sprinkler fitters | 200% |
225% |
||
|
Saturday— plumbing and mechanical services employees, irrigation installer employees |
First 2 hours | 150% | 175% | |
|
After 2 hours |
200% | 225% | ||
|
After 12 noon |
200% |
225% | ||
|
Sunday—all employees |
200% |
225% |
||
| Public holidays—all employees | 250% |
275% |
||
| Work commenced after midnight and before start of ordinary hours | 200% |
225% |
||
Allowance
| Allowances | Rate |
| Acid plants and chemical works allowance | $3.06 per hour |
| Acting on plumber’s licence or equivalent allowance | $1.36 per hour |
| Acting on a welding certificate allowance – pressure oxy-acetylene or electric welding (manual or pressure) | $0.79 per hour |
| Acting on a welding certificate allowance – pressure oxy-acetylene and electric welding (manual or pressure) | $1.58 per hour |
| Aluminium foil insulation allowance | $0.68 per hour or part thereof |
| Apprentice training fees and textbook costs reimbursement | reimbursement of training fees for prescribed courses and the cost of prescribed textbooks |
| Asbestos eradication allowance | $2.83 per hour |
| Asbestos materials allowance | $1.05 per hour |
| Bitumen work allowance | $1.05 per hour |
| Cold work allowance | $0.84 per hour |
| Computing quantities allowance – not leading hand | $5.97 per day or part thereof |
| Cutting tiles allowance | $1.05 per hour |
| Damage to tools and clothes reimbursement | an agreed amount to cover the damage |
| Distant work – travelling expenses reimbursement | reimbursement for all travelling expenses |
| Explosive powered tools allowance | $1.99 per hour |
| Fares allowance | $15.81 per day |
| First aid allowance | $3.59 per day |
| Fumes allowance | the agreed rate |
| Hospitals allowance | $0.08 per hour with a minimum payment of $0.58 per day or part thereof |
| Hot work allowance – between 46°C and 54°C | $0.84 per hour or part thereof |
| Hot work allowance – in excess of 54°C | $1.05 per hour or part thereof |
| Insulation allowance | $1.05 per hour or part thereof |
| Laser safety officer allowance | $3.48 per day or part thereof |
| * Leading hand allowance – weekly hire – 1 employee | $0.63 per hour in addition to the minimum wage for the highest classification supervised, or own minimum wage, whichever is higher |
| * Leading hand allowance – weekly hire – 2-5 employees | $1.39 per hour in addition to the minimum wage for the highest classification supervised, or own minimum wage, whichever is higher |
| * Leading hand allowance – weekly hire – 6-10 employees | $1.78 per hour in addition to the minimum wage for the highest classification supervised, or own minimum wage, whichever is higher |
| * Leading hand allowance – weekly hire – more than 10 employees | $2.36 per hour in addition to the minimum wage for the highest classification supervised, or own minimum wage, whichever is higher |
| * Leading hand allowance – daily hire – 1 employee | $0.65 per hour in addition to the minimum wage for the highest classification supervised, or own minimum wage, whichever is higher |
| * Leading hand allowance – daily hire – 2-5 employees | $1.43 per hour in addition to the minimum wage for the highest classification supervised, or own minimum wage, whichever is higher |
| * Leading hand allowance – daily hire – 6-10 employees | $1.84 per hour in addition to the minimum wage for the highest classification supervised, or own minimum wage, whichever is higher |
| * Leading hand allowance – daily hire – more than 10 employees | $2.43 per hour in addition to the minimum wage for the highest classification supervised, or own minimum wage, whichever is higher |
| Lost or stolen tools and clothes reimbursement | reimbursement up to a maximum of $1,335.00 for the current replacement value of new tools of the same or comparable quality |
| Meal allowance – overtime | $15.54 for a meal and $15.54 for a further meal after each subsequent 4 hours |
How is the leave managed in the Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award?
In the plumbing and/or fire sprinkler fitting services industry, leave entitlements for employees are determined by the National Employment Standards (NES) and the classification of the employee.
Annual leave
All annual leave is per the National Employment Standards NES.
Entitlement to annual leave
- In addition to the entitlement to annual leave in the NES, employees who work or are required to be on-call for any part of 26 weekends or more in any year of employment are entitled to an additional week’s annual leave on the same terms and conditions.
- For the purpose of the additional week of leave provided by the NES, a shiftworker means a continuous shiftworker as defined in this award.
Public holidays
Public holidays are provided for in the NES.
- An employer and employee may agree to substitute another day for a day that would otherwise be a public holiday under the NES.
- An employer and employee may agree to substitute another part-day for a part-day that would otherwise be a part-day public holiday under the NES.
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