RDOs under the Building and Construction Award

Under the Building and Construction General On-site Award, most full-time day workers build up 0.4 hours toward a paid rostered day off for each qualifying day worked in the standard 20-day cycle.

How the standard RDO cycle works

The basic idea is simple. The employee works a little longer on their ordinary working days. Part of that time is banked and later used to pay for a rostered day off, commonly called an RDO.

As at October 2026, the standard ordinary-hours setting is 38 hours a week, usually averaged over a 4-week cycle.

Under the common arrangement, the employee has a 20-day cycle made up of:

• 19 working days of 8 ordinary hours
• 1 paid RDO
• 0.4 hours accrued on each qualifying working day
• 7.6 accrued hours used to pay the RDO

The maths is straightforward: 19 days multiplied by 0.4 hours equals 7.6 hours.

As at October 2026, the employee therefore receives 7.6 hours of ordinary pay for the RDO, assuming they have accrued the full entitlement for that cycle.

This arrangement lets the employee work 40 clock hours during a normal five-day working week while averaging 38 ordinary paid hours after the RDO accrual is accounted for. Payroll records will often split each eight-hour day into 7.6 paid ordinary hours and 0.4 RDO accrual hours.

You can read more about construction award obligations in the Awards hub. For a classification and pay rate check, use the Award Rate Checker.

RDO accrual and payment at a glance

Payroll event	Usual treatment under the standard RDO arrangement	What to check
Qualifying ordinary workday	Accrue 0.4 hours toward the RDO	Confirm the employee is covered by the RDO arrangement
Scheduled RDO	Pay up to 7.6 ordinary hours from the accrued balance	Check the roster and available accrual
Work on a scheduled RDO	Pay the applicable overtime rate, subject to the Award rules	Check minimum payment and whether another day is substituted
Unpaid absence	Accrual may be reduced	Check the reason for the absence and the Award wording
Paid leave or public holiday	Treatment depends on the applicable Award provision and roster	Do not apply a blanket payroll rule without checking
Employment ends	Outstanding accrued RDO hours may need to be paid	Reconcile the balance before finalising termination pay

Who gets an RDO

Do not assume everyone wearing a hard hat gets one.

The RDO system generally applies to full-time day workers using the Award's standard ordinary-hours arrangement. A different pattern may apply where there is a valid alternative arrangement, an enterprise agreement or another workplace instrument.

Casual employees are usually paid for the hours they work, together with the applicable casual loading. They do not normally participate in the standard full-time RDO cycle. Part-time arrangements need to be checked against the employee's agreed hours and the current Award terms.

Coverage matters too. The Building and Construction General On-site Award does not cover every worker connected with construction. Office employees, some specialist trades and workers covered by another modern award may have different rules.

Start with three questions:

1. Which award or enterprise agreement covers the employee?
2. What classification and employment type applies?
3. Does their written roster use the standard RDO cycle or another permitted arrangement?

How to record RDO accrual in payroll

Keep the accrual visible. Hiding it inside a general ordinary-hours figure makes mistakes harder to find.

A sound payroll record should show:

• ordinary hours worked
• RDO hours accrued
• RDO hours taken
• the RDO balance after each pay
• any adjustment for leave, absence or roster changes
• overtime paid when the employee works on an RDO

For example, suppose Sam works five qualifying eight-hour days. Payroll records 38 paid ordinary hours for the week and adds 2 hours to the RDO balance. After 19 qualifying days, Sam has built up 7.6 hours for the scheduled day off.

The RDO is generally paid at the employee's ordinary rate. You also need to consider any all-purpose allowances that form part of the ordinary hourly rate. Site-specific reimbursements or allowances paid only in particular circumstances may be treated differently.

Minimum award rates normally change following the annual wage review, commonly from the first full pay period on or after 1 July. That is why it is safer to check the current classification rate rather than hard-code an old dollar amount into an RDO rule.

What happens when someone works on an RDO

Working on an RDO is not the same as cancelling it in payroll.

As at October 2026, work performed on a scheduled RDO under the standard Award day-work provisions is generally paid at 200% of the relevant rate, meaning double time. A minimum payment of 4 hours can apply when the employee is required to work on that RDO.

Check the exact circumstances before processing the pay. The roster may have been validly changed, the RDO may have been substituted by agreement, or a site arrangement may set another permitted day. Those details affect whether the day remains an RDO and whether overtime applies.

Do not simply pay eight ordinary hours and wipe the accrued balance. That can underpay the employee and leave the RDO ledger wrong. Record the reason for the change, the applicable rate and what happened to the original accrued entitlement.

Leave, public holidays and absences

This is where two apparently identical employees can end up with different RDO balances.

The result depends on whether the day counts toward RDO accrual under the Award and the workplace's valid arrangement. Paid leave, public holidays, workers' compensation absences and unpaid leave should not all be treated as the same event.

If an RDO falls on a public holiday, do not let one entitlement silently replace the other. Check the Award's substitution and rostering rules, plus any applicable enterprise agreement. The payroll record should make clear which day was the public holiday and which day was the RDO.

For unpaid absences, confirm whether the employee earned the 0.4-hour accrual for that day. If not, their next RDO may have less than 7.6 hours available. The employer should not create a negative balance without checking the governing rules and any agreement with the employee.

Changing or banking RDOs

An RDO should appear on the employee's roster. Moving it casually after the roster has been issued creates payroll and compliance problems.

The Award allows certain changes and alternative arrangements, but the required agreement and records matter. Put any substitution or banking arrangement in writing. Record the original RDO, the replacement date and the employee's balance.

Some workplaces use an industry RDO calendar. Others set their own roster within the Award rules. A calendar used on another project is not automatically binding on your site.

Common RDO payroll mistakes

The usual trouble spots are practical ones:

• treating 0.4 accrued hours as unpaid time
• paying an RDO without reducing the balance
• reducing the balance when the employee actually worked the RDO
• paying ordinary time instead of the applicable overtime rate
• forgetting the minimum engagement for RDO work
• applying full-time RDO settings to casuals
• using an old hourly rate after an annual wage increase
• failing to include an applicable all-purpose allowance
• deleting accrued hours when employment ends

Before each pay run, compare the roster, timesheets and RDO ledger. If they tell different stories, stop and sort it out before paying the crew.