Fair Work Commission

Enterprise agreements

The Fair Work Commission’s website provides a range of tools and guides to assist with agreement making.  

• 10 tips for agreement making
• Making a single-enterprise agreement: step by step guide (PDF)
• Single enterprise agreement date calculator
• Making a single enterprise agreement legislative checklist (Word)
• Varying a single enterprise agreement legislative checklist (Word)
• Enterprise Agreement Benchbook

Note: for multi enterprise agreement applications or if you are about to commence an industry bargaining round that will result in a large number of agreement approval applications being lodged. Notifying the Commission prior to applications being made will assist the Commission in dealing with the applications in a timely and consistent manner. 

Who can make an enterprise agreement?

An enterprise agreement can be made between one or more employers and two or more employees with their chosen representatives.

In the case of a greenfields agreement, where there are no employees employed, the employer negotiates with one or more relevant employee organisations (unions).

Why make an enterprise agreement?

Modern awards cover a whole industry or occupation and provide a safety net of minimum pay rates and employment conditions. Enterprise agreements can be tailored to meet the needs of particular enterprises.

What can an enterprise agreement include?

Enterprise agreements usually include a broad range of matters such as:

• rates of pay
• employment conditions, eg hours of work, meal breaks, overtime
• consultative mechanisms
• dispute resolution procedures
• deductions from wages for any purpose authorised by an employee.

They cannot, however, include unlawful content (such as discriminatory or objectionable terms).

Types of enterprise agreements

Approval processes for enterprise agreements vary depending on the type of agreement.

There are 3 types:

• Single-enterprise agreements – involving a single employer or one or more employers (such as franchisees) co-operating in what is essentially a single enterprise (such employers are known as single interest employers – see Division 10, Part 2-4, of the Fair Work Act 2009).
• Multi-enterprise agreements – involving 2 or more employers that are not all single interest employers.
• Greenfields agreements – involving a genuinely new enterprise that one or more employers are establishing or propose to establish and who have not yet employed persons necessary for the normal conduct of the enterprise. Such agreements may be either a single-enterprise agreement or a multi-enterprise agreement.

Continuous operation of agreements

Under the Fair Work Act 2009, agreements continue to operate after their nominal expiry date until they are replaced or terminated by application to the Commission. Through provisions in the Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 2009, agreements made under previous legislation continue to have effect as agreement-based transitional instruments.