Articles / Tilers

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

For most tiling businesses in Australia, the staff who tile on site, including tilers and apprentices, are covered by the Building and Construction Award [MA000020], administered by the Fair Work Ombudsman. Work done off site, such as in a flooring retail yard, can fall under the Retail Award or Manufacturing Award instead, and in Western Australia a separate state award may apply, so the right answer depends on where and how the tiler’s staff actually work.

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By Greg Allan, tradesman and creator of Data First Coaching

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

For most tiling businesses, the staff who tile bathrooms, lay floor screed, waterproof a shower recess or set falls to a wet area on site are covered by the Building and Construction Award [MA000020]. The Fair Work Ombudsman's summary of the award says it covers employers in the building and construction industry and their employees who fit within its classifications, and the full award lists tilelayer among the trades covered under its classification schedule (see the Building and Construction Award summary and the Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020).

This covers a tiler working for a builder on a new build or renovation, an apprentice learning the trade on site, and even staff tiling or resurfacing a pool, which the Fair Work Ombudsman separately confirms falls under the same award (see award coverage for pool cleaners and repairers).

Does it make a difference whether the tiler works on site or in a shop?

Yes. The award that applies can change depending on where the work happens and who the tiler is actually working for, not just what trade they hold. The Fair Work Ombudsman's page on flooring layers says a flooring layer working for an employer in the retail industry can be covered by the Retail Award, while one working for an employer in the building and construction industry falls under the Building and Construction Award, and anyone not covered by either industry award can fall under the Manufacturing Award on an occupational basis (see award coverage for flooring layers).

In Western Australia, some tiling businesses sit in the state industrial relations system rather than the national one. The WA Government says a tiler who works on site in the building industry there is likely to fall under the Building Trades and Labourers (Construction) Award, while work away from site may sit under the Building Trades and Labourers (General) Award instead (see WA awards for common jobs and the Building Trades and Labourers (Construction) Award). Which system a tiling business sits in depends on how the business is structured, so this is worth checking against the owner's own situation rather than assuming.

Why does knowing the award name matter less than what it actually costs to put a tiler on the job?

Most tilers who search for the award name are trying to tick a compliance box, and that matters. But the award itself is only the start of the real question, which is what it actually costs to put a qualified tradesperson or an apprentice on a bathroom, a splashback or a floor preparation job, once every loading, allowance and slow patch is counted.

A day rate or a square metre rate that is built on the base wage alone looks clean on a quote. It does not account for the award entitlements sitting on top of that wage, or for the hours a crew loses waiting on another trade, cutting large format tile, or pulling up a failed screed. A tiling business can win every job on paper and still be losing money on the ones that actually went ahead, because the rate never carried the full cost of the person doing the work.

What does a qualified tradesperson and an apprentice really cost on a wet area job?

A day rate priced on what the owner could personally do in a day rarely matches what a crew member actually delivers, and that gap is exactly where margin disappears on waterproofing and tiling work. New or less experienced staff work slower and use more adhesive and tile than a tradesperson pricing from memory expects, and that has to be allowed for in the rate, not discovered after the warranty period has already started.

Picture a tiling business that had been running two qualified tradespeople on every bathroom and wet area job, because that felt like the safe, fast way to get the waterproofing membrane down and the falls set correctly before the builder's next trade arrived. It is also one of the more costly ways to staff that work. The owner restructured the crew so one qualified tradesperson now works alongside a second year apprentice instead of a second qualified tradesperson, changing the real cost sitting behind every square metre rate quoted from that point on.

It is also worth remembering that plenty of tradespeople working in the industry were never trained properly in the first place, picking up habits rather than a full trade. A day rate built on what a fully qualified, efficient tradesperson should produce can badly understate what an owner is really paying for on some jobs, tile supply and breakage included.

How can AI agents stop that gap between the quoted rate and the real cost?

You can only close that gap once you are pricing from your own job data instead of memory, and that is where AI agents earn their keep. An AI agent is software that does a job the way you would, using your prices, your wording and your rules, instead of a generic calculator built for every trade at once.

Pricing a tiling business data first means the square metre rate or day rate on every new quote is checked against what the tiler's crew, qualified and apprentice, actually produced on the last run of bathrooms, splashbacks and floor preparation jobs, not against a wage figure typed in once and left there. AI agents can hold that comparison in the background on every job, flagging where a crew's real output on waterproofing or large format tile is drifting from what the quote assumed, long before it shows up as a thin month.

Where can you check the current rules?

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, built by Greg Allan, starts from the tiling business's own job and pay data rather than the award clause itself. The Trade Business Intelligence looks at what each crew member, qualified tradesperson or apprentice, actually produced against what the quote assumed, because that gap is usually where the real problem sits, not in which award applies. From there it traces whether the issue started in how the square metre rate or day rate was built, or further back in how the job was quoted in the first place. Working through exactly how that gets fixed happens inside the Academy, among members who are open minded, innovative and willing to share what they find, because the Trade Business Intelligence is powered by every member, for every member.

Looking for a business coach who starts from your numbers? Tiler Business Coach or every answer for tilers.

Also asked

More questions owners ask.

Does the Building and Construction Award cover apprentice tilers as well as qualified tradespeople?

The award's own summary describes coverage for tradespersons and apprentices in the trades it lists, which includes tile layers. The current conditions and classifications for apprentices sit inside the award's own schedules, so it is worth checking the linked Fair Work Ombudsman pages directly for an apprentice's own situation rather than assuming.

What if a tiling business also runs a retail tile showroom?

Coverage can split depending on which part of the business a staff member actually works in. The Fair Work Ombudsman's flooring layers guidance shows how the same trade can sit under the Retail Award, the Building and Construction Award or the Manufacturing Award depending on the employer's industry, so check which applies to each role.

Does this award cover subcontractors a tiling business engages, or only employees?

The sources describe coverage for employees and for labour hire staff placed with a building business, not for genuine subcontractors running their own business. Whether someone on a job should be treated as a subcontractor or an employee depends on the owner's own arrangement, so this is worth checking directly rather than guessing.

Why would a day rate that covered costs last year start losing money this year with nothing obviously changing?

The real cost of a crew moves as staff mix changes, an apprentice progresses, or jobs quietly run slower than priced, while a rate set once from memory stays still. Checking the rate against current job data regularly is what catches that drift before it quietly erodes margin across a run of bathrooms and wet areas.

Data First Coaching

The Tiler Business Coach Who 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.

P.S. Joining the waitlist costs nothing and there is no obligation. While you wait, the Tradies App is free for trade business owners, so you can start on the lessons tonight.