INDUSTRY FOCUS
HR and WHS for WA construction, electrical, and trades businesses
The most award-dense, highest-risk, most heavily sub-contracted corner of the WA economy - and the one where a generalist provider is most likely to get your paperwork wrong.
THE PROBLEM
A typical WA building or trades business does not have one award problem. It has several running at once: on-site trades under the Building and Construction General On-site Award (MA000020), electricians under the Electrical Award (MA000025), any plumbing work touching the Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award (MA000036), and the office - accounts, admin, sales - under the Clerks Award (MA000002). Each has its own classification structure, allowances, penalty regimes and annualised salary rules, and the classification that looks right from the job title is frequently wrong on the duties.
Add apprentices with registered training contracts and year-based progression, leading hand and supervisory allowances, all-purpose allowances that flow into overtime, and the WA question underneath everything - which industrial relations system is the entity actually in - and you have a compliance surface most subscription template libraries were never built to cover.
This is the work WPG does most, and the work our tooling is purpose-built for.
Four awards, two IR systems, and one inspector away from trouble.
RECENT ENGAGEMENT
What this looks like in practice
For a WA building and property group operating two entities and 39 workers - carpenters, plasterers, electricians, apprentices, supervisors and office staff - WPG delivered:
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39
workers individually classified across four modern awards, on a duties-based analysis with every determination citing its award clause
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20+
written award determinations delivered as the evidence base, then carried into a full suite of compliant employment contracts
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5
contract templates - management, junior/trainee, trades, director and award-free - each one checked automatically for internal consistency before issue
Engagement details anonymised. The methodology - determine first, contract second, verify everything - is the same at any headcount.
WHAT WE COVER
The trades employer's compliance stack
Award classification and wage compliance
Duties-based classification across MA000020, MA000025, MA000036 and MA000002, rate verification including allowances and penalties, and the documented evidence pack that matters now that intentional underpayment is a criminal offence. The WA Wage Compliance Audit →
Contracts built on the determinations
Employment contracts that acknowledge the correct award, handle set-off and annualised arrangements lawfully, deal properly with apprentices and training contracts, and carve allowances in or out explicitly - so the contract and the award never contradict each other.
WHS systems that survive a site visit
Safety management systems for the realities of site work: high-risk work licences, White Card and competency verification, subcontractor management, consultation records and incident readiness under the WA WHS framework.
The people problems in between
Performance management on a workforce that is half on site and half in utes, terminations done procedurally fairly, and the supervisor coaching that stops the same issues recurring.
START HERE
Find out where your crew actually stands
A Stage 1 Diagnostic maps your award coverage, contracts and safety systems in one fixed-scope engagement.