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Which award covers the staff of a stonemasonry business in Australia?

In Australia, a stonemasonry business's staff are generally covered by the Joinery and Building Trades Award 2020 (MA000029), which the Fair Work Ombudsman states covers stonemasons and related joinery and building trades occupations. Depending on the state and whether the work is done on site, in the workshop, or is monumental masonry, other awards such as the Building Trades and Labourers awards or the Monumental Masonry Industry Award may apply instead, so the right award depends on the job and the state.

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By Greg Allan, tradesman and creator of Data First Coaching

Which award covers a stonemasonry business in Australia?

Most stonemasonry businesses in Australia have their staff covered by the Joinery and Building Trades Award 2020 (MA000029). The Fair Work Ombudsman states this award covers employers throughout Australia of employees in the joinery and building trades industries and occupations, and it names stonemasonry and the occupation of stonemason directly, defining a stonemason as an employee engaged in the dressing or setting of stonework cut to a mould or template, or proven by a square, straight edge or line, under the Joinery and Building Trades Award 2020. The Fair Work Ombudsman's award summary confirms stonemasons sit alongside carpenters, joiners, signwriters and plasterers under the same award, set out in the Joinery Award summary.

Does it matter whether the stonemason works in the workshop or on site?

Yes, and this is where many stonemasonry businesses, especially those doing paving, cladding or memorial work on site, get caught out. The Western Australian Government states that a stoneworker or stonemason working on site in building and construction is likely covered by the Building Trades and Labourers (Construction) Award, while workshop based fabrication work not done on site may sit under the Building Trades and Labourers (General) Award, and monumental masonry work, cutting and setting memorials, is likely to fall under the Monumental Masonry Industry Award instead, as set out on WA awards for common jobs. This matters because a stonemasonry business doing benchtop fabrication in the workshop, on-site cladding install and memorial work in the same week can have more than one award applying to different staff on different days, not one blanket answer.

What about apprentices or labour-hire staff on a stonemasonry job?

Apprentices training in stone trades are usually covered under a different award to a qualified stonemason's day-to-day award, and labour-hire staff supplied onto a construction site can trigger yet another award again. Apprenticeships Victoria states building and construction apprentices are usually covered by the Building and Construction General On-site Award (MA000020), though it notes an apprentice could instead be under a different award or an enterprise agreement depending on the trade and the employer, as explained on Building and construction apprenticeships. The Fair Work Ombudsman also states the Building and Construction General On-site Award covers employers who supply labour on an on-hire basis in on-site building and construction, which can apply if a stonemasonry business brings in on-hire polishers or installers for a busy install, under the Building and Construction General On-site Award. Which award actually applies depends on where the work happens, who employs the person, and the state the job is in, so a stonemasonry business running jobs across more than one state should check its own situation rather than assume one award covers everyone on the crew.

This is general information, not legal, tax or employment advice. Check your own situation with the body named here or a qualified adviser.

Why does knowing the award rate still leave the real risk unanswered?

Knowing the right award tells a stonemasonry business what it must pay a stonemason, an apprentice or a polisher at minimum. It does not tell the business what that staff member actually costs once superannuation, leave, workers compensation and other on-costs sit on top of the award wage, or how many of those paid hours end up charged to a slab, a benchtop template or a memorial install versus sitting idle in the workshop. A quote built off the award rate plus a flat markup can look like it clears a healthy margin on paper, while the real cost of the CNC time, the polishing and the templating trip never gets fully booked against the job. Markup and margin are not the same thing, and a business pricing stone fabrication off one while reporting the other can be running thinner than the numbers on the quote suggest.

How do you make sure every hour on the slab and the CNC is actually costed to the job?

You start by tracking, job by job, how many paid hours your crew actually spends cutting, templating, polishing and installing against what the quote assumed, not what the award rate says they should cost in theory. Picture a stonemasonry business that had been running two qualified tradespeople on the tools for every job, a costly way to staff fabrication and install work when much of the CNC cutting and routine polishing does not need two full award wages on it. Restructuring the crew so one qualified stonemason works alongside a second-year apprentice instead of a second qualified tradesperson can change the real cost sitting under every quote, without changing a single price on the quote itself. This is the kind of answer that only shows up when the business looks at its own job costing data first, rather than relying on memory of how the last few jobs felt to run.

AI agents, which are software that do a job the way you would, using your prices, your wording and your rules, can sit across your job costing and timesheets to flag the moment labour hours on a job start running past what the quote allowed, before the job is invoiced and the margin is locked in as a loss nobody noticed. AI agents working this way are different to checking the award once a year and assuming the pricing still holds.

Where can you check the current rules?

How does Data First Coaching approach this?

Data First Coaching, created by Greg Allan, starts from the owner's own job costing and payroll data through the Trade Business Intelligence, not from a generic award lookup, because knowing the right award is only the opening question. The real work is checking whether the hours a crew actually spends cutting, templating, polishing and installing are being booked against the jobs they belong to, and whether pricing recovers the true cost of that labour once on-costs and workshop overhead are counted, not just the award wage. Where that gap sits is different for every stonemasonry business, so the how 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.

Also asked

More questions owners ask.

Does the award change if a stonemasonry business supplies benchtops to kitchen companies rather than working direct with homeowners?

Coverage under the Joinery and Building Trades Award generally follows the occupation and the work being done, such as cutting, templating and installing stone, rather than who the customer is. Whether a benchtop job for a kitchen company sits under a different award still depends on where and how the work happens, so check the award text directly.

What if a stonemasonry business operates in Western Australia rather than under the national system?

Some WA employers, particularly sole traders and certain partnerships, can fall under the WA state industrial relations system rather than the national award system, with WA awards set by the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission. Which system applies depends on the business structure, so this is worth checking against the WA Government's own guidance.

Does an apprentice stonemason get paid the same as a qualified stonemason under the award?

No award pays an apprentice the same as a qualified stonemason, but the exact structure and progression sits in the award text itself and can depend on which award applies to that apprentice. The current figures are not something to rely on from memory, so always check the linked award pages for the detail that applies to the business.

Can a stonemasonry business have staff covered by more than one award at the same time?

Yes. A business doing workshop fabrication, on-site cladding install and monumental masonry in the same week can have different staff sitting under different awards depending on the work and where it happens, so one blanket assumption about the award rarely covers the whole crew correctly.

Data First Coaching

Coaching That Starts From Your Data.

Data First Coaching is the trade business coaching method created by Greg Allan, founder of Tradies Success Academy. Before any advice is given, the Trade Business Intelligence Agent reads the owner's own job management and finance data, so the coaching starts from what the numbers show this week, not from what the owner can remember or explain. It finds the root cause of a problem, then puts in the system that fixes it.

How most coaching works

Most coaching starts with the owner explaining the business.

  • The first hours go on the owner describing the business to a coach.
  • The picture is out of date within weeks, because the numbers move every week.
  • So the advice treats what the owner happened to notice, which is usually a symptom.
  • Too often it comes from someone who has never run a trade business, or has only just started one.
  • The owner pays for the explaining, then pays again when the advice does not fit.

Data First Coaching

Data first starts from your numbers, not your memory.

  • The Trade Business Intelligence Agent reads your job management and finance systems first.
  • It sees your quotes, jobs, time on site and money as they are this week, not as you remember them.
  • It finds where the problem actually starts, not where it shows up.
  • You put in the system that fixes it at the root, and the data shows whether it worked.
Typical coaching against Data First Coaching
Typical coachingData First Coaching
Where it startsYou explain the businessYour own job and finance data
How current it isAs at the last meetingUpdated as your numbers change each week
What it fixesThe symptom you noticedThe root cause the data shows
Who coaches youOften someone who has never run a trade businessGreg Allan, who built a trade business a general manager now runs
The answer to growthUsually another wageAgents on the office work, people on customers and the crew
Your softwareAnother subscription or agencyTools you build on your own data, around how you work

Fix the root cause, once

The data names the real problem, so the system you put in fixes it once instead of patching the same symptom every month.

Own your software

Build your own tools on your own data, shaped around how your jobs run and how your customers buy. Cancel the subscriptions and agencies that were never built for your business.

A more human business

Agents do the non-billable work: the quoting, invoicing, chasing and reporting. Your people spend the day on customers and the crew, so relationships get better and the team performs.

How Data First Coaching works

Why Greg

You speak to the owner who has already done it.

Greg built Response Electricians in Perth into a 30+ staff business with 1,950+ five-star reviews. A general manager runs it.

He has trained 9,000+ trade business owners across Australia and New Zealand.

He grew a coaching company to 35 staff, a CEO and 15 coaches, then cut it back so every owner deals with him directly.

Most coaching companies hand you to a salesperson, then to a coach who has never run a trade business. Here you get the owner.

The Academy is full because it works, and Greg keeps it small on purpose so every business gets looked at properly, by him. He reads every application himself, interviews the owners who fit and only takes on owners who are building for the right reasons and give back to the group. Join the waitlist and he'll be in touch when a place opens.

Illustration: a trade business owner standing over three office staff buried in paperwork at night.
The old way

More customers meant more people doing the computer work, and more wages nobody invoices.

Illustration: a tradesman shaking hands with a homeowner in her driveway, his phone showing jobs quoted and invoiced.
The new way

You stay with your customers and your team. The office stops landing on you.

The old way

More jobs. More paperwork. Less of the owner left.

Most trade businesses grow the same way.

More jobs means more quoting, invoicing, chasing and scheduling.

None of it gets paid for.

So the owner does it at night, after a full day on site.

Or hires an office person to do it.

The office grows. The wages grow. The margin does not.

And the owner is still the one everything waits on.

Where we take you

More work. More profit. More of you left.

The phone rings with the jobs you want, at the price you set.

You grow when you're ready, never faster than the business can carry.

Every job is priced to make money, so the busy months show up in the bank.

The best tradies in your area want to work for you, and they stay.

The chasing, the paperwork and the 9pm admin stop landing on you.

The business runs the day. You pick which parts of it you're in.

Bigger, without the headaches. Getting bigger stops meaning getting busier.

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P.S.

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