Premixed Concrete Award

The threshold issue is separating manufacturing work from on-site construction work. Getting that line wrong can lead you to the wrong award altogether.

• Use the award only for premixed concrete manufacturing and related classified work.
• Do not pull in on-site building or civil construction work that clause 4.3 leaves to the Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020.
• If the business operates across manufacturing and site work, test the employee's actual work and environment before deciding coverage.

This award is strongly task-based. Classification affects everything else, so it should be reviewed whenever the plant role becomes more skilled or more autonomous.

• All covered employees must be classified according to the structure in clause 12.4 and told in writing what their classification is.
• The classification must reflect the skill level or levels required for the principal functions of the employment.
• Level 1 is an employee without industry skills who is training to be a batcher, allocator, tester or plant assistant.
• Higher levels move through materials handling and associated plant work into primary batch plant operation and concrete testing work.

This award expects discipline around engagement documents and minimum shift lengths, especially where volumes change with dispatch demand.

• For part-time staff, record the regular pattern of work in writing before any variation occurs.
• Keep the written agreement and any variation and give a copy to the employee.
• Roster part-time employees for at least 3 consecutive hours on a rostered day or shift.
• Casuals receive the ordinary hourly rate plus the casual loading for ordinary hours, with a 3 hour daily minimum.

Premixed concrete plants often want operational flexibility, but the award ties that flexibility to formal agreement and specific roster rules.

• Ordinary hours for non-shiftworkers sit between 6.00 am and 6.00 pm Monday to Friday unless the majority-agreement mechanism is used.
• Unless there is majority agreement, ordinary hours must not exceed 10 hours on any day.
• Employees must get their ordinary-hours roster at least 7 days in advance, with only a limited unforeseen-circumstances change rule in clause 14.1(b).

The routine payroll risk is not just missing an allowance. It is missing a higher-duties or all-purpose allowance issue and then undercalculating later entitlements built on it.

• Higher duties can change the rate payable for the whole day or only for the higher-duty time, depending on how long the higher work is performed.
• Wages must be paid weekly, or fortnightly by agreement.
• Final pay is due within 7 days after termination and includes amounts due under the award and the NES.
• Industry disability, leading hand and first aid allowances are paid for all purposes under clause 18.2.

This award now interacts with broader after-hours contact rules, which matters in operations that use stand-by or recall arrangements.

• The pathway from casual to full-time or part-time employment comes from the NES.
• The right to disconnect operates alongside the award.
• Clause 13A.4 preserves contact where an employee is on paid stand-by time.
• Clause 13A.5 also preserves contact for an emergency roster change or recall to work.

PR799280, PR799337, PR799493

The current consolidated award incorporates these recent variation determinations. Use the consolidated wording when checking any affected clause, schedule, rate or allowance.

Affected: 16 - Minimum rates, 18 - Allowances, Schedule A - Summary of Hourly Rates of Pay, Schedule B - Summary of Monetary Allowances, Schedule C - Supported Wage System