By Greg Allan, tradesman and creator of Data First Coaching
Which award covers a plumbing business's staff in Australia?
If you run a plumbing business in Australia, the Fair Work Ombudsman says the Plumbing Award (MA000036) covers employers and their employees in the plumbing and fire sprinkler fitting services industry, plus employers who employ plumbing or fire sprinkler fitting staff. That covers plumbing, gas fitting, roof plumbing, heating, air-conditioning, irrigation installing and domestic engineering work, so most plumbing businesses sit squarely inside it. The full Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award 2020 has applied since it commenced operation on the first of January two thousand and ten, so this is not a new award, it is the reference point the Fair Work Ombudsman expects a plumbing business to check first.
Does the award cover apprentices, labourers and irrigation installers too?
Yes. The Fair Work Ombudsman's summary of the Plumbing Award lists plumber's labourers and sprinkler fitter's assistants, qualified plumbers and gasfitters, apprentice plumbers and gasfitters, irrigation installers, fire technicians and sprinkler fitter tradespersons among the roles it covers. If a pipe layer on your crew does not yet hold their own licence, the Fair Work Ombudsman's guidance on award coverage for pipe layer labourers treats them as a plumbing labourer assisting the licensed plumbers who are doing the actual plumbing work. Irrigation installers get a similar answer, the Fair Work Ombudsman's page on award coverage for irrigation installers says the Plumbing Award covers them when they work for a plumbing business, and can cover them on an occupational basis even where another award applies to the employer.
What about fire technicians or roles that sit outside day to day plumbing?
It depends on what the role actually does and who the employer is. The Fair Work Ombudsman's guidance on award coverage for fire technicians says the Plumbing Award can apply to a fire technician if the employer provides plumbing or fire sprinkler fitting services by contract and there is a classification that covers the work, and it can also apply on an occupational basis if the employer is not covered by another award with plumbing and fire sprinkler fitting classifications. If your plumbing business also takes on backflow testing, compliance certificate work or fire protection alongside the usual blocked drain and hot water callouts, this is the kind of detail worth checking against your actual roles rather than assuming. Arrangements can also sit outside the national award altogether, the South Australian Attorney-General's Department notes that the state's public sector plumbers and gasfitters award is directly related to the national Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award, but applies to government employed plumbers rather than a private plumbing business.
Why doesn't knowing the award rate protect the margin on a job?
The award tells a plumbing business what it must pay, not what a job actually costs to finish, and that gap is where margin quietly disappears. A plumber running a crew of licensed tradespeople and apprentices carries wage obligations set externally, through classifications, callout provisions and apprentice progression, and none of that is something the owner controls. What a trade business does control is whether that wage, once paid, gets tracked back to the rough-in, the fit-off, the maintenance contract or the emergency callout it was spent on. A fully booked diary of blocked drains, burst pipe callouts and bathroom renovations can look healthy on paper while the real labour cost on each job is never properly booked against it. When demand surges, a run of burst pipes after a storm or a flood of hot water replacements in winter, pushing the same crew harder without planning for it tends to show up later as sick days, mistakes and rework, and all of that inflates the real cost of every job the stretched crew finishes, long after the quote was signed off.
What does this look like on the tools, not just on paper?
Picture a plumbing business that has been running with two qualified tradespeople on every job, from a straightforward tap or toilet repair through to a full bathroom renovation. That staffing mix is a costly way to run routine work, because two full trade wages are being booked against jobs that do not need two licensed sets of hands. One version of fixing that is restructuring the crew so a qualified plumber works alongside a second-year apprentice instead of a second qualified tradesperson, matching who is on the job to what the job actually needs. Whether that is the right move for your business is a question your own wage and job data can answer, not a guess about what seems sensible.
How do you keep the award rate from becoming a margin leak?
You protect margin by treating every tradesperson's and apprentice's wage as a job cost from the moment it is paid, not as a flat wage line that disappears into overheads. That means your own job and wage data, not the award page, is what shows which jobs are actually profitable once a busy run of callouts settles down. This is what data first coaching starts from, the numbers your business already has, rather than a feeling about how the week went. AI agents, software that does a piece of office work the way you would, with your prices, wording and rules, can take on the job of matching wage and oncost records to the job they were spent on, so the information is there before the quote for the next similar job is written, not discovered after it. A second set of AI agents can watch for the pattern that shows up when a crew is stretched during a run of emergency callouts, so the strain shows up before it turns into sick days, mistakes and rework on site. None of that changes what the award says a plumber must be paid. It changes whether the owner actually sees what each job cost to finish.
Where can you check the current rules?
- Plumbing Award MA000036 summary - the Fair Work Ombudsman's overview of who the award covers and the roles included.
- Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award 2020 full text - the complete award document and its commencement date.
- Award coverage for pipe layer labourers - how unlicensed pipe layers are classified under the award.
- Award coverage for irrigation installers - when irrigation work falls under the Plumbing Award.
- Award coverage for fire technicians - how fire sprinkler and fire technician roles are covered.
- S.A. Public Sector Plumbers and Gasfitters Award - the related state based award for public sector employment.
This is general information, not legal, tax or employment advice. Check your own situation with the body named here or a qualified adviser.
How does Data First Coaching approach this?
Data First Coaching starts from your own wage and job data, run through the Trade Business Intelligence, rather than from the award page or a feeling about how busy the diary looks. Greg Allan looks first at whether what you pay a tradesperson or apprentice is actually booked against the job it was spent on, because that is usually where margin starts leaking long before the BAS shows it. He also watches what a run of emergency callouts does to a stretched crew: “The team will feel it. So they will start to feel burnout.” Working out exactly how to fix that for your business happens inside the Academy, with other members, because the Trade Business Intelligence is powered by every member and the Academy is built for owners who are open minded, innovative and willing to share what they learn.
Looking for a business coach who starts from your numbers? Plumber Business Coach or every answer for plumbers.
