The Fair Work Commission’s website provides a range of tools and guides to assist with agreement making.
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.
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.
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).
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.
Enterprise agreements usually include a broad range of matters such as:
They cannot, however, include unlawful content (such as discriminatory or objectionable terms).
Approval processes for enterprise agreements vary depending on the type of agreement.
There are 3 types:
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.