Bargaining is the process by which one or more employers and employees negotiate the terms and conditions which will be included in an agreement.
Either side may be represented in the process by a bargaining representative.
The details and further assistance of agreement making can be found on our Making an agreement page.
Email member.assist@fwc.gov.au for any further clarification or assistance with the legislative requirements in the agreement making process and a team member from the Commission’s agreements team will aim to contact you within 2 business days.
Bargaining on a proposed enterprise agreement begins when:
This is known as the notification time or date of notification.
The Fair Work Commission single enterprise agreement date calculator is a tool to help employers, representatives and bargaining representatives ensure that their process for agreement making and application for approval complies with the legislative timeframes. Find more details on single enterprise agreement date calculator.
The employer must take all reasonable steps to notify employees of the right to be represented as soon as practicable, and not later than 14 days, after the notification time.
The notice is given by providing employees with a copy of the notice of employee representational rights provided in Schedule 2.1 of the Fair Work Regulations 2009. The notice cannot contain any other content except details that the Regulations require the employer to insert or omit.
The notice should be given to each employee who will be covered by the agreement and who is employed at the notification time.
If a new person is employed after the notification time and the notice has already been provided to other employees, then the new person does not need to be given the notice.
Note: A vote cannot occur until at least 21 days after the last notice of representational rights has been given.
A bargaining representative is a person nominated to participate in bargaining for a proposed enterprise agreement. A bargaining representative can be an employer, employee, union, industrial association, or any other person specified in writing by either the employer or employee.
The following are bargaining representatives:
Those involved in the bargaining process, including bargaining representatives, are required to bargain in good faith.
The following are the good faith bargaining requirements that a bargaining representative for a proposed enterprise agreement must meet:
The good faith bargaining requirements do not require a bargaining representative to:
If a majority of employees want to bargain with the employer to make a new agreement under the terms of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act) and the employer refuses, a bargaining representative for the employees can apply to the Fair Work Commission for a majority support determination under s.236 of the Act.
If the Commission makes this determination the employer is required to bargain with their employees to make a new agreement.
Use Form F30, which can be found on our Forms page.