Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award
Cl. 18.1 unloaded base rates plus the full cl. 21.2 / 21.3 all-purpose allowance set are seeded. Daily-hire and weekly-hire engagements both work, using the same 52/50.4 factor as MA000020 because the cl. 21.3(i) lost-time loading equates to 3.17%. Apprentice rates and the multistorey allowance are still on the to-do list.
Partially built. Core rates and the most-used allowances are in place, but specific clauses or cohorts are still on the to-do list. Read the limitations section before relying on this award for your payroll.
Official Fair Work rates. This award’s minimum pay rates are synced directly from the Fair Work Commission’s Modern Awards Pay Database and updated automatically when the Commission changes them - including the annual wage review - so payroll always uses the current legal minimums without a manual update.
What's built
- All cl. 18.1 unloaded base rates for plumbing and sprinkler classifications.
- Full cl. 21.2 / 21.3 all-purpose allowance set - industry, special-fixed, plumbing-trade, registration, sprinkler-stream and tool allowances.
- Daily-hire and weekly-hire engagements - daily-hire applies the cl. 21.3(i) lost-time loading via the 52/50.4 weekly factor.
- Sector and engagement dimensions on the award so future allowance / loading variations can plug in cleanly.
Known limitations
- Existing employees from the pre-restructure schema (codes like PMS_W_*, PMS_T*_NR, PMS_T*_R) need to be re-pointed to the new PMS_* classifications, with an applicable_allowance_codes whitelist matching their old tier. Bulk migration is pending.
- Apprentice rates (cl. 18.2) are not seeded - pre-2014 and post-2014 cohorts diverge, and trainee apprentices have a separate clause (cl. 18.2(b)(iv-v)). Plumbing apprentices are calculated as a percentage of (Tradesperson L1 base + plumbing trade allowance + tool allowance); sprinkler apprentices use a different base. Both still need extracting.
- First-aid + leading-hand allowance exclusion (cl. 21.4(b)(ii)) is not auto-enforced - both rows can apply simultaneously today. If an employee has the cl. 21.3(h) leading-hand allowance, manually omit FIRST_AID from their allowance whitelist.
- Multistorey allowance (cl. 21.5/21.6) not yet seeded - add when first needed.
Setup & special instructions
- Each plumber needs an allowance code whitelist matching their tier - Worker non-trade gets [INDUSTRY, SPECIAL_FIXED]; Tradesperson Not Registered gets [INDUSTRY, SPECIAL_FIXED, PLUMBING_TRADE, TOOL]; Tradesperson Registered adds REGISTRATION on top; Sprinkler stream variants need additional SPRINKLER_* codes layered on.
- Apprentices currently need a manual rate override until the cl. 18.2 seed lands.
- If an employee is a leading hand, manually exclude the first-aid allowance from their whitelist (the resolver doesn't enforce the cl. 21.4(b)(ii) conflict yet).
- • Plumbing
- • Fire protection
- • Construction
The consolidated award text is the authoritative source. Always confirm specific obligations against the award itself - Mployr's implementation status reflects what we've seeded; it does not replace legal advice.
Want to see this award running on your data?
We can demo a pay run on the plumbing & fire sprinklers award using sample employees in a sandbox tenant - including any of the special-instruction steps above so you can see exactly what your team's day-to-day looks like.
Book a demo