By Greg Allan, tradesman and creator of Data First Coaching
Why does it feel hard to know which award covers a glazier’s staff?
A glazing business can sit across more than one award at the same time, and that is what makes the question hard to answer with a single sentence. The same glazier might measure and quote a shower screen in the workshop on Monday, then install a shopfront panel on a building site on Tuesday, and the award that applies can shift with the job.
Most owners end up guessing from memory, or from something a bookkeeper mentioned once, rather than checking the actual classification of the work. Glass and glazing work covers a wide spread, from a splashback or mirror fit, to a double glazing reglaze, to a balustrade install on a commercial site, and the award that fits one of those jobs is not always the award that fits the next.
Why does the award question matter more than just getting the pay rate right?
The rate itself is not where most glazing businesses actually lose money on this question. The real issue is whether a glazier’s wage on a job gets booked as a cost of doing that job, or quietly absorbed into overhead where every quote looks healthier than the job really was.
A glazing business has demand swings like any trade: a run of emergency boarding callouts after a storm, a glass supplier with a long lead time holding up an install, a measure visit that turns into three site revisits before a toughened glass panel finally goes in. When staff get pushed through those swings, the pressure and the cost of that labour is real, and it has to be accounted for properly rather than absorbed quietly, because it changes what the job actually makes.
Which award actually covers your glaziers?
According to the Fair Work Ombudsman, the Joinery and Building Trades Award 2020 covers employers in the joinery and building trades industries and their employees who fit within its classifications, including glass and glazing contracting, glass and glazing work, and glaziers and glass cutters directly.
That same award carves out exclusions where employees are already covered by the Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020, and the Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award 2020 separately excludes employers or employees doing glass and glazing work that is covered by the Joinery Award. In other words, glass and glazing work sits with the Joinery Award as its home base, but it is not automatic, and the actual job has to be checked against the classifications on each page.
What changes if your glaziers work on-site on a shopfront or construction job?
If your glazier is installing on a building or construction site, a different award can take over. The Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020 names the classification “Signwriter, painter or glazier” directly within its schedule, which means on-site work for a glazier can fall under that award rather than the Joinery Award.
This is also where state differences show up. In Western Australia, a state page on common awards says “A glazier employed on-site in the building and construction industry is likely to be covered by the Building Trades and Labourers (Construction) Award”, with the Building Trades and Labourers (General) Award possibly applying to work done off-site, for employers who sit in the state system rather than the national one. So the answer genuinely depends on where the business is registered and where the glazier is actually standing when the job happens.
This is general information, not legal, tax or employment advice. Check your own situation with the body named here or a qualified adviser.
What does this mean for how you cost a glazing job?
Once you know which award applies, the next question is where that wage sits in your numbers, and that is the one most glazing businesses get wrong without realising it. If a glazier’s hours on a reglaze, a balustrade install or an emergency boarding job sit in overhead instead of cost of sales, the quote you priced looks more profitable than the job you actually ran.
That gap shows up hardest on the jobs with the longest lead times and the most site revisits, like double glazing and commercial shopfront work, because those are the jobs where a glazier’s hours quietly stack up between the measure visit and the final install. A data first view of your own job and pay records shows exactly where that labour is landing, rather than relying on a feeling about which jobs “feel” busy or profitable.
This is where AI agents can carry the paperwork the way you already run your business. An agent, in this sense, is software that does a piece of office work the way you would do it yourself, using your prices, your wording and your rules, rather than a generic template built for every trade. AI agents can sit right where a glazier logs hours against a job, so the wage lands against that quote instead of drifting into overhead for someone to untangle at the end of the quarter.
Where can you check the current rules?
- Joinery and Building Trades Award 2020 (MA000029) summary, the Fair Work Ombudsman’s plain summary of who the Joinery Award covers, including glass and glazing work.
- Joinery and Building Trades Award 2020 full text, the award’s own coverage clauses and exclusions, including where the On-site Award takes over.
- Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020, covers on-site building and construction work, naming the glazier classification directly.
- Manufacturing and Associated Industries and Occupations Award 2020, shows how glass and glazing work is excluded here and sent back to the Joinery Award.
- WA awards for common jobs, Western Australia’s state system position for glaziers working on-site or off-site.
How does Data First Coaching approach this?
Greg Allan’s Data First Coaching does not start by asking which award a glazing business thinks it is under. It starts with the Trade Business Intelligence reading the owner’s own job and pay data, to see where a glazier’s hours are actually landing against real quotes, and whether that cost is sitting in cost of sales or getting lost in overhead where no one sees it until margin slips.
That is usually where the real problem starts, not in the award itself but in how the business records against it. The how, including the way agents are built around that, is worked through inside the Academy, with members, because the Trade Business Intelligence is powered by every member and the Academy is for owners who are open minded, innovative and willing to share what they learn.
