Pay & Wages
UGL Pay Rates 2026: Site, Trade & EA Pay
What UGL workers should be paid in 2026 — the Building and Construction General On-site Award floor by classification, casual loading, penalties, and where the UGL enterprise agreements sit.
Who covers UGL workers — award or agreement?
UGL is the engineering and maintenance arm of CIMIC Group, maintaining rail rolling stock, power stations, oil and gas plants, water assets and defence facilities, and building rail and resources infrastructure. Its workforce is tradespeople, maintainers, project engineers and site staff across long-term maintenance contracts and projects.
UGL bargains contract by contract, and our corpus holds one of the largest agreement sets of any employer (below). The awards underneath depend on the site — the Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020 on projects and the Manufacturing Award on maintenance sites; the construction ladder is tabled below.
The federal awards relevant to UGL roles:
- Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020 (MA000020)
Workforce snapshot. In the 2024-25 Workplace Gender Equality Agency reports, Ugl Engineering Pty Limited, Ugl Operations And Maintenance Pty Limited, Ugl Operations And Maintenance (Services) Pty Limited reported 7,994 employees (part of the HOCHTIEF Australia Holdings Limited group, 19,731 employees in total, 12.8% casual and 19.8% women). Source: WGEA 2025 Public Data File, data.gov.au (CC-BY 3.0 AU).
Construction award floor (1 July 2026)
The Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020 (MA000020) adult minimums are:
| Classification | Permanent | Casual (incl. 25%) |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 (CW/ECW 1) — CW1 (a) | $26.67/hr | $33.34/hr |
| Level 1 (CW/ECW 1) — CW1 (b) | $27.20/hr | $34.00/hr |
| Level 1 (CW/ECW 1) — CW1 (c) | $27.56/hr | $34.45/hr |
| Level 1 (CW/ECW 1) — CW1 (d) | $28.05/hr | $35.06/hr |
| Level 2 (CW/ECW 2) | $28.62/hr | $35.77/hr |
| Level 3 (CW/ECW 3) | $29.45/hr | $36.81/hr |
| Level 4 (CW/ECW 4) | $30.38/hr | $37.98/hr |
| Level 5 (CW/ECW 5) | $31.31/hr | $39.14/hr |
| Level 6 (CW/ECW 6) | $32.14/hr | $40.17/hr |
| Level 7 (CW/ECW 7) | $33.06/hr | $41.33/hr |
| Level 8 (CW/ECW 8) | $33.86/hr | $42.33/hr |
| Level 9 (ECW 9) | $34.46/hr | $43.08/hr |
On-site pay also carries the award's industry, tool, travel and site allowances, plus a 36-hour week with RDOs on most projects — project agreements restructure all of this, and sit well above the ladder.
Source: Fair Work Commission modern awards pay database, current-operative rates (1 July 2026 annual wage review). Casual figures add the 25% casual loading.
The UGL enterprise agreements
Enterprise agreements set rates above the award, with their own classification structures and allowances. Current UGL agreements in our corpus (67 in total):
- UGL Engineering Pty Ltd and ETU WA Electricity Supply Industry Agreement 2025 — approved February 2026, nominal expiry 12 February 2030.
- UGL Chevron Facilities Enterprise Agreement 2025 — approved October 2025, nominal expiry 2 October 2029.
- UGL APLNG Enterprise Agreement 2026 — approved August 2026, nominal expiry 1 October 2029.
- UGL Resources (Contracting) Pty Ltd Karratha Enterprise Agreement 2026 — approved August 2026, nominal expiry 24 August 2029.
- UGL Operations and Maintenance Pty Ltd Esso Care and Preservation Offshore Maintenance Enterprise Agreement 2025 — approved July 2025, nominal expiry 30 June 2029.
- UGL Orica Kooragang Island Enterprise Agreement 2025 — approved February 2026, nominal expiry 28 May 2029.
- UGL CO2 Greenfields Project Agreement 2025 — approved May 2025, nominal expiry 23 May 2029.
- UGL Maintenance Qld Enterprise Agreement 2025 — approved April 2026, nominal expiry 2 April 2029.
Plus 59 more — search "UGL" in our agreements database.
We don't reproduce agreement dollar figures here — the agreement covering your site, state and stream is the document to read. Find your agreement, then your classification, then your pay point, and compare it with your payslip. The award tables on this page are the floor every one of these agreements must beat.
Construction pay issues worth checking on any payslip
General award-compliance issues that come up across the construction sector. This is a checklist for your own payslip, not a finding about UGL:
- Site allowances, tool and travel allowances missed from the agreement.
- RDOs and the 36-hour week not honoured on projects that use them.
- Wet-weather and inclement-weather pay withheld.
- Wrong CW level for the tickets and skills actually used.
What to do if your pay looks wrong
Match your payslip to your classification in the agreement (or the award tables above), and price any gap with our back-pay calculator. Raise it in writing with payroll or your manager first — most underpayments are fixed at that step. Unresolved, the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) recovers underpayments at no cost, up to six years back, and your union can run the claim for you. Not sure which instrument covers you? Ask our AI advisor with your role and location.
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FairWork Mate is an independent Australian publisher of workplace-rights information. Our content is prepared with AI assistance and draws on primary sources — the Fair Work Act, modern awards, and Fair Work Commission and Fair Work Ombudsman material. It is general information, not legal advice.