For a list of allowances including their current dollar amounts, see the Building and Construction General On-Site Award [MA000020] Pay Guide on our pay guides page: Pay guides - Fair Work Ombudsman.

Use our Pay Calculator to find out the amount of an allowance in a pay rate.

Tip

Allowances in building and construction is a useful place to start for general information about allowances, including the definition of distant work.

An employee getting the distant work payment doesn’t get:

• overtime for the time spent travelling
• the fares and travel pattern allowance.

Time spent travelling for distant work is compensated by the distant work payment. It doesn’t form part of an employee’s ordinary hours and isn’t treated as overtime. This time doesn’t count towards an employee’s annual leave or personal leave accrual.

The distant work payment is different to the living away from home - distant work entitlements.

Example – distant work with transportation provided

Nick, Shannon and Peter are a team of builders work for Floyd’s Wall, a general building and construction company.

The usual start time on-site is 8.30am.

The team are working on a job site that’s 65 kilometres away from the principal post office in the town where Floyd’s Wall is based.

Nick

Nick lives 75kms from the job site.

Nick has a Floyd’s Wall work truck. His employer asks Nick to transport Shannon and Peter from their homes to the job site and drop them home again at the end of the day. Nick needs to leave home at 7am.

Nick gets the distant work payment. He’s paid for time spent travelling from his home to when he reaches the job site. Payment is at his ordinary hourly rate, calculated to the next quarter of an hour. He also gets this payment on the trip home.

Nick doesn’t get the fares and travel allowance because he’s paid the distant work payment.

As he’s using a work truck he doesn’t get the per kilometre rate for employees using their own vehicle, but he would be paid back for any reasonable necessary travel expenses, such as tolls and parking fees.

Nick doesn’t accrue annual leave or sick leave for the time spent travelling. He also doesn’t get overtime for travelling outside of the ordinary spread of hours.

Shannon

Shannon lives 58 kilometres from the job site. Nick collects her at about 7.30am.

Shannon gets the distant work payment because:

• she lives more than 50 kilometres from the job site, and
• the job site is more than 50 kilometres from the principal post office of their nearest regional town.

Shannon is paid her usual hourly rate, rounded to the next quarter of an hour for each trip. This means she gets a minimum 30 minutes distant work pay per day.

The time Shannon spends travelling isn’t treated as overtime as it’s part of her ordinary hours. This time doesn’t contribute to her annual leave or personal leave accrual.

Shannon doesn’t get the fares or travel pattern allowance because she gets the distant work payment.

Peter

Peter lives 45 kilometres from the job site and is collected at about 7.45am.

Peter doesn’t get the distant work payment because he’s not required to travel more than 50kms from his home.

He doesn’t get the fares and travel pattern allowance because his employer has provided free transport to and from his home and the job site.

Example – distant work using own vehicle

Willem is asked to assist at a construction site for one day.

He needs to use his own car to travel 220kms from his home to the construction site and then travels back home at the end of the day. It takes him 3 hours each way.

The site is also more than 50 kilometres from the GPO in the city where his employer is based.

He works for 6 hours on-site.

Willem is paid:

• 6 hours pay for time spent working on-site
• distant work payment:
  • for each trip, time spent travelling to and from the work site is paid at his ordinary hourly rate, calculated to the nearest quarter of an hour
  • $0.59 per kilometre travelled which compensates for any expenses necessarily and reasonably incurred.