By Greg Allan, tradesman and creator of Data First Coaching
Which award covers the staff of an earthmoving business in Australia?
There is no single award that automatically covers every earthmoving contractor’s crew. According to the Fair Work Ombudsman, work described as site clearance, earth-moving, excavation and site restoration can sit under the Building and Construction Award MA000020. Plant hire, civil contracting and dig, load and haul work can instead sit under the Mobile Crane Hiring Award MA000032, and drivers of earthmoving plant moving waste can sit under the Waste Award MA000043. In Western Australia, businesses in the state industrial relations system may instead be covered by the state Earth Moving and Construction Award, which names drivers of excavators, bobcats, mobile cranes, tractors and front end loaders.
Most earthmoving contractors run a mixed crew: an operator on the excavator, another running the bobcat for a site cut, a tipper driver hauling spoil, maybe a float driver moving plant between jobs. Each role can sit under a different award depending on the work being done and the vehicle or plant being driven, which is why the Fair Work Ombudsman’s general guide, on its about awards page, says most awards are industry based and should be considered before occupational awards. Working out which award, and which classification inside it, applies to each person on the crew is the starting point, not the end of the question.
Why does the state an earthmoving contractor works in change the answer?
Because Australia runs two different workplace relations systems, and which one an earthmoving contractor sits in depends on the state and the business structure. Western Australia runs its own state system for private sector businesses that are sole traders, unincorporated partnerships or unincorporated trusts, as set out on the WA which system applies page. Businesses in other states, including sole traders and partnerships in New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria, are instead state referred national system businesses, covered by the Fair Work Ombudsman’s national award system, described on its state referred national system businesses page.
An earthmoving contractor operating as a company is usually in the national system regardless of state. A sole trader or partnership running the same fleet of excavators and bobcats in Western Australia can sit in the state system instead. This is not a detail to check once and forget. A contractor who incorporates, takes on a partner, or starts bidding on civil work in a different state can shift which system and which award apply, and the crew’s pay and entitlements need to follow that change.
Why does classifying the award correctly still leave a costing problem?
Because getting the award and classification right tells an earthmoving contractor what to pay an operator. It does not tell them what that operator actually costs the business, machine by machine, job by job. Most owners work out a wage rate once, file it, and then quote site cuts, trenching and bulk earthworks using a rough day rate for the crew that never gets checked against the real machine hour it was meant to cover.
This is where the real cost of getting the structure wrong shows up later, not at the point of classifying a role. An owner who sets the pay and cost structure for the crew at the top of the books, without tying wage cost to the hours each machine actually runs, is setting the business up for a gross profit margin on paper that the bank statement never agrees with. The award tells the business what it must pay. It says nothing about whether that wage is sitting against the excavator hour, the bobcat hour or the tipper run it belongs to, or just sitting unallocated in overhead where no quote ever gets checked against it again.
How do you work out what an operator actually costs your business?
You start from your own job and pay data, not from memory of last quarter’s rates. Every operator on the payroll, whether fully qualified or an apprentice, drives a cost that should sit against a machine hour, a dry hire or wet hire job, a site cut or a trenching run, not against a general wages line that gets spread evenly across every quote regardless of how that machine was actually used.
Picture an earthmoving contractor who has been running two qualified operators, one on the excavator and one on the bobcat, a costly way to staff work that does not always need two fully qualified people on the controls. Restructuring the crew so one qualified operator works alongside a second-year apprentice changes what each machine hour actually costs to run, and that new cost only means something once it is booked against the right job type, not left sitting in overhead where every quote absorbs it evenly whether that job earned it or not.
Your own data, not a rule of thumb, is what shows whether a wage sits where it should. A pay rate that looks fine against the award can still be quietly eroding the gross profit margin on every site cut if it is never tied back to the hours the machine actually worked, the fuel it burned, and the tipping fees or servicing costs that job carried.
What changes when AI agents handle this paperwork for you?
An AI agent is software that does a job the way you would do it yourself, using your own prices, wording and rules. For an earthmoving contractor, that can mean an agent that checks timesheets against machine hours and job numbers as they come in, flagging a pay rate or allocation that does not match the job it should be sitting against, instead of the owner finding it at the end of the quarter when the books are reconciled.
Data first means the correction happens close to where the wage was logged, not months later when a season of site cuts and trenching has already been quoted off a cost that was never real. AI agents can carry that checking and filing work, freeing you and your office to spend time on customers, your crew and your civil clients instead of chasing down which award and which job a wage belongs to.
Where can you check the current rules?
- Earth Moving and Construction Award summary - the Western Australian state award covering earthmoving and construction businesses and operator roles such as excavator, bobcat and front end loader drivers.
- Building and Construction Award MA000020 - the Fair Work Ombudsman’s summary covering site clearance, earth-moving and excavation work in the national system.
- Mobile Crane Hiring Award MA000032 - covers plant hire and civil contracting work including dig, load and haul projects.
- Waste Award MA000043 - covers drivers and offsiders operating earthmoving plant on waste and haulage work.
- About awards - the Fair Work Ombudsman’s general guide to how industry and occupational awards are applied.
- Which system of employment laws applies - explains which Western Australian businesses sit in the state system.
- State referred national system businesses - explains which businesses in other states sit in the national system.
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 an earthmoving contractor’s own job and pay data through the Trade Business Intelligence, not from a general rule about awards. It looks at where a wage is actually sitting against the machine hours it drove, and whether the gross profit margin a quote promised still holds once that cost is allocated properly. Greg Allan built his own business past thirty staff by putting proper structure and cost around every role, not by guessing rates job by job, and he says plainly that when that structure is wrong at the top, “The team will feel it. So they will start to feel burnout.” The how of building that structure 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 what they find.
