By Greg Allan, tradesman and creator of Data First Coaching
Which award covers the staff of a waterproofing business in Australia?
For most waterproofing crews working on-site, the award that applies is the Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020, known as MA000020. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s summary of this award says it covers employers in the building and construction industry whose staff fit within its classifications, which runs from labourers and machinery operators through to tradespeople such as waterproofers doing membrane work to wet areas, bathrooms, balconies, roof decks and basements. See the Building and Construction Award summary.
The full award text goes further, covering any employer who supplies labour on an on-hire basis into the on-site building, engineering and civil construction industry, and the employees placed with them while doing covered work. That matters if a waterproofing business ever brings in extra hands from a labour hire outfit during a flood test deadline or a run of balcony remedial jobs, because those workers can be covered too. The complete wording sits on the Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020 (MA000020) page.
What does the award’s classification actually say about a waterproofer?
The award does not treat waterproofing as a generic labouring task. Fair Work’s award viewer lists a defined classification for a waterproofer, describing someone who has completed an apprenticeship or recognised training, or reached the stated qualifying point, and who is employed on internal or external waterproofing work using cement, bitumen, plaster or similar material, including sewer and tunnel plastering and the rendering of pits, sumps, tanks and filter beds.
That page is worth sitting alongside the compliance file for any waterproofing business, because it is the exact wording an inspector or a payroll audit would point to if there was ever a dispute about how a tradesperson should be classified. It sits on the Fair Work award viewer’s classification list, and it does not separate new build work from remedial and defect rectification work, so the classification can apply to both.
What if some of your crew don’t fit that classification?
Not every role in a waterproofing business is doing the waterproofing itself. Someone running quotes and certificates from the office, or chasing warranty callbacks, might not be covered the same way as a waterproofer doing the membrane work on the roof deck.
The Fair Work Ombudsman says that when an employee is not covered by an industry award or an occupation award, they may be covered by the Miscellaneous Award, or they may be award or agreement free, in which case they are still entitled to the National Minimum Wage and the National Employment Standards. That is worth checking role by role rather than assuming the whole business sits under one award. See the Fair Work Ombudsman’s guide on award coverage.
This is general information, not legal, tax or employment advice. Check your own situation with the body named here or a qualified adviser.
Why can a waterproofing business be fully award compliant and still lose money on every job?
Knowing the award rate tells a waterproofer what to pay. It says nothing about where that wage lands once the job is quoted, invoiced and reported on. A waterproofer quoting a bathroom, balcony or basement job builds the labour cost in using the award rate, but if that wage then drifts into overhead instead of sitting against the job as cost of sales, the gross profit on paper can look healthy while the real margin on that job has already gone.
Picture a waterproofing business that has been running every job with two qualified tradespeople on the tools, because that felt like the safe way to guarantee the membrane work and the flood test would pass first time. It is also one of the more costly ways to staff that work. A different structure, a qualified tradesperson working alongside a second year apprentice instead of a second qualified hand, changes the labour cost sitting against that job without changing the standard of the work, and whether that shift makes sense only shows up once the wages are actually landing in the right line of the numbers.
Pressure makes this worse. When a crew is being pushed through back to back wet area jobs during a busy run, with cure times compressed and insurance work callbacks stacking up, mistakes creep in and rework eats into margin the quote never accounted for. A business that prices as if every job runs clean is pricing against a picture that was never true.
How can AI agents help keep award pay and job costing in line?
AI agents are software that do a job the way the owner would do it, using the business’s own prices, wording and rules, rather than a generic template built for every trade at once. For a waterproofing business, that can mean an agent that checks each job’s labour entries land against that job instead of disappearing into overhead, and flags a quote where the margin on paper does not match what the crew actually spent once cure time delays or a remedial callback are factored in.
This is data first work. It starts from the business’s own job and wage data rather than a memory of what a bathroom or balcony job usually costs, and it can keep checking every job, every week, instead of only at the end of the financial year when the pattern is already locked in. A second AI agent can sit on the compliance side, keeping classification records and training evidence against each tradesperson, so the paperwork behind an award rate is never a scramble when a builder or a certifier asks for it.
Where can you check the current rules?
- Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020 (MA000020), the full award text, including coverage and classifications.
- Building and Construction Award summary, a plain language summary of who the award covers.
- Fair Work award viewer’s classification list, the detailed classification definitions, including waterproofer.
- Fair Work Ombudsman’s guide on award coverage, what applies when a role does not fit an industry award.
How does Data First Coaching approach this?
Data First Coaching, built by Greg Allan, starts from the business’s own job and wage data through the Trade Business Intelligence rather than a general assumption about what an award rate should cost a waterproofing business. It looks at where the wage actually lands against each wet area, balcony or remedial job, because that is usually where the real margin problem starts, not at the payslip. Greg has said “When your team’s getting pushed and they’re doing bigger and bigger hours, there’s a lot more pressure coming down from the top,” which is why pricing and cover need to account for pressure, not just the award rate. The how of building that is worked through inside the Academy, with members, because the Trade Business Intelligence is powered by every member who is open minded, innovative and willing to share.
