Double time when it rains and an extra $1,000: Inside the eye-popping pay of tradies as union strikes new deal with Queensland government

Queensland’s third-term Labor government has signed agreements with construction unions that include extraordinary pay levels and working conditions.

Under the state’s Best Practice Industry Condition policy, employees get double time if it rains and an extra $1,000 per week if they work on a project 30 miles or more from the employer’s address.

“The government should be an employer of choice, and working on our projects should be one of the best jobs you can get,” Prime Minister Steven Miles said on Tuesday as he justified the use of taxpayer money.

Wage increases across all trades will increase the pay package of crane operators over 700 tons to $2,394/week and of fourth-year adult electrical engineers to approximately $44/hour or $1,585 per week.

These wages apply for the first year, with four consecutive wage increases of 5 percent per year.

In addition to the agreed wage increases, there are numerous wage and allowance payments, such as a 300 percent wage increase for working on and between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day or Good Friday and Easter Monday.

A ‘picnic day’ is observed on the first Monday of December; anyone who has to work on a picnic day receives double one and a half hours’ pay.

In the wake of Annastacia Palaszczuk’s resignation in December, Mr Miles was finally given the nod after a deal with union power brokers, the Courier Mail reports.

Like all states and territories, Queensland companies and agencies are vying to attract traditions to their projects, with the Sunshine State’s impetus greater than others in building infrastructure for the 2032 Olympics.

“We pay what it costs to get workers to deliver the projects Queensland needs,” Mr Miles said.

The union agreement will also include generous provisions for weather, both hot and cold, despite demands from both the public and private sectors to work through it.

The new rules require work to stop when conditions reach 35 degrees Celsius, or 29 degrees Celsius and 75 percent humidity.

Employees required to work in the rain will be paid double “for all work done in the rain, and this payment will continue until they stop working.”

‘If employees are in the warehouses because it is raining, whether at the start, morning tea or lunch, and it is raining, they are not required to work in a dry area or be transferred to another location. location unless: the rain stops, a covered walkway is provided, the sheds are covered and employees can reach the dry area without having to go through the rain; or adequate protection is provided,” the new deal said.

Paul Bidwell, CEO of Master Builders Queensland, told The Courier-Mail the contractor’s criticism of the deal was not about curtailing safety or undermining workers’ rights.

“It’s about ‘can we continue to build?’ he said.

“Because if we don’t do that, we’re not going to deliver all these houses, plus the other projects that are needed.”

Several fatalities have occurred at major private construction projects in south-east Queensland in recent months.

Surveyor Brad Arnold, 56, was fatally crushed by a truck at Victoria Point near Brisbane in September.

“This tragic event serves as a stark reminder of the risks we face every day in the construction industry,” a fundraiser for Mr. Arnold said.

Days later, apprentice Tyler Whitton, 17, fell through a hole at a Brisbane workplace and later died in hospital.

Daniel Sa’u, 29, died while showing “signs of heat stress”, the CFMEU said, after leaving work on the major Cross River Rail project in Brisbane’s south in December.