Overtime

Permanent and casual employees covered by the Building and Construction General Onsite Award 2020 are subject to overtime rates when exceeding ordinary hours. Employees can work up to 8 ordinary hours per day (or 38 ordinary hours per week). Hours worked in excess of ordinary hours must be paid at time and half for first two hours and double time for hours thereafter.

Any hours worked outside the spread of hours (6.00am to 6.00pm) must also be paid at penalty rates. Same as above, first two hours are paid at time and a half and double time thereafter.

When calculating overtime for a casual employees, the full-time ordinary rate may be used and overtime rates of time and three quarters (175%) for the first two hours and double time and a quarter (225%) thereafter may be used.

Overtime-related allowances

In addition to the above overtime rates, employees are entitled to the following overtime allowances:

• An employee required to work 1.5 hours of overtime is entitled to the meal allowance of $17.57.
• An employee required to work 2 hours of overtime, is entitled to the above meal allowance plus a 20-minute crib break paid at their double time rate.
• On a weekend, a 20-minute crib break is payable to an employee required to work 4 hours at their ordinary rate. An employee required to work more than 4 hours on a weekend must be allowed to take a paid crib time of 30 minutes which will be paid at the ordinary hourly rate of pay.

Note: Paying an employee above award rates (or a flat rate) may not offset overtimes rates and associated allowances.

Contact the Workplace Relations Team to check if your arrangements are compliant.

Need more information?

We often get asked questions like how many hours is overtime for a casual, and how does overtime work? We hope this page clarifies things for you! If you haven’t found the answer to your questions on our website, give us a call or email us.