Our history
The Union of Architectural Workers is the only registered union in Australia covering architectural workers as such. We cover everyone whose labour produces architecture: registered architects, graduates, candidates for registration, drafters and technicians, interior designers, urban designers, landscape architects, urban and regional planners, academics, students, and the practice managers and support staff who keep studios running. One union, from university through to retirement.
How long has there been a union for architects?
Architectural unionism in Australia dates back to 1915, when the union that became the Association of Architects, Engineers, Surveyors and Draughtsmen of Australia was founded in Brisbane, representing architects alongside engineers, surveyors and draughtsmen. It later became the Association of Draughting, Supervisory and Technical Employees. Architectural workers have been represented in many forms since, both within federated professional unions and as an independent union at different points in time. Today that representation sits within Professionals Australia, formed in 1994 as the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia, and renamed in 2013.
Why have I never heard of a union for architects?
Until 2025, the union for architects was called Professional Architects Australia, and for most of its history the union has presented itself as a 'professional association', due to conservative attitudes about unionism. Since the Covid pandemic in 2020 brought a wave of workplace anxiety and employee resistance against harsh new workplace policies, we have refocused on Union over Association and have been fighting to give visibility to the real problems facing architects. In 2024, with the release of the landmark Wellbeing of Architects research, the problems we had long observed, such as low pay, high workloads, high stress and unpaid overtime, were now confirmed in extensive evidence. In 2026, we cannot afford to mince words. We are the union for architects in Australia, and we want real change for workers.
What has the union done for architects?
Key landmarks have been the establishment of an award for architects, setting out minimum pay and conditions originally only for graduates and junior architects, and eventually, in 2010, the establishment of the modern Architects Award. The union has participated in every award review and advocated for strengthening and protecting minimum standards for architects, against submissions by the Association of Consulting Architects, which opposed the creation of the award, has sought to water down overtime provisions, and in 2026 is opposed to pay rates being increased in the current Fair Work award review. Our legal advocacy has resulted in an award with good conditions on paper, but the challenge is to make sure we stand up for and insist on these minimums being upheld. This advocacy has been done in quiet for too long. In 2026, we invite all architectural workers to take part in our campaign to increase the base pay rates and demonstrate to Fair Work that our current deal is not acceptable or sustainable.
Alongside the big-picture advocacy, we have protected and enforced workers' rights through Workplace Advice and Support, our legal team which can advise and represent workers from simple contract reviews all the way to court appearances. In 2024, we successfully applied to the Fair Work Commission to cover landscape architects as part of our union, and in 2025 we changed WAS from legal to industrial advice, as part of our increasing focus on the core business of unionism. Through our intervention, architectural workers have recovered stolen wages and enforced the correct payouts from terminations and redundancies, but looking forward, we need to do more. We can't just be picking up after sloppy employers and coping with a broken system. We need to change the system.
What is our current relationship to Professionals Australia?
We remain part of a larger federated union, and share many of the same challenges as scientists, engineers, IT workers, pharmacists and translators. In fact, there are 7,500 different job descriptions found in our overall membership, and we have a stronger voice together. In 2026, Professionals Australia is one of the fastest-growing unions in Australia, and together we can pool legal and campaigning resources to give architectural workers a bigger voice. Within that larger federation, the Union of Architectural Workers has its own committee and its own campaigns, and we invite you to get involved and grow the voice of architectural workers.
Be part of what comes next. Join UAW.