Fair Work Commission

Explain the terms of the agreement to your employees

You must take all reasonable steps to ensure that your employees understand the agreement by:

• explaining the terms of the agreement, and the effect of those terms, to employees covered by the agreement, and
• ensuring the explanation is given in an appropriate way taking into account any particular circumstances and needs of the relevant employees.

Examples of circumstances and needs of employees that need to be taken into account include:

• employees from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds including those who speak English as a second language
• young employees, and
• employees who didn’t have a bargaining representative for the agreement.

If you do not take reasonable steps to communicate with employees (by providing information and explaining the terms of the agreement and their effect to employees in an appropriate manner), the agreement may not be approved and the bargaining process may have to start again.

Reasonable steps can include you arranging for bargaining representatives to inform employees (for example a meeting run by a union delegate to explain the effect of the agreement on your behalf) however the information provided should be recorded and mentioned in the F17.

The explanation should include a comparison of the terms of agreement compared to the award.

Keep records about how you explained the agreement to your employees

You will need to give the Commission evidence that describes the steps taken to explain the agreement and the effect of its terms, when the steps were taken, by whom and how the particular circumstances and needs of employees were taken into account.

You should keep copies of any explanatory material provided to employees and provide this along with details of the steps taken when you lodge your application.

For more information see section 180 of the Act.