Fair Work Commission

About New Approaches

One of the functions of the Fair Work Commission is 'promoting cooperative and productive workplace relations and preventing disputes' (see s.576(2)(aa) of the Fair Work Act 2009).

The Commission can help employers, employees and their representatives build cooperative and productive workplaces that accept change and foster innovation.

New Approaches complements the Commission’s existing dispute resolution and bargaining functions by providing a formal process to help parties to work together effectively to prevent disputes before they develop.

The New Approaches jurisdiction enables the Commission to work with parties to:

• promote cooperative and productive workplace relations through interest-based approaches to bargaining for enterprise agreements
• develop new ways of resolving conflict or disputes at the workplace using interest-based problem-solving
• support the introduction of change, innovation and productivity improvement through new ways of collaborating outside of the bargaining cycle, and before a dispute occurs.

How the Commission can help

The Commission may provide assistance where one or more employer and employee parties at a workplace or business agree to the Commission’s involvement.

The services the Commission may provide include:

• training in interest-based bargaining
• help with enterprise bargaining
• help with developing joint processes to implement enterprise agreements
• training in interest-based dispute resolution
• training and assistance in collaborative workplace change, including training for consultative committees

The jurisdiction does not replace the Commission’s existing functions under the Fair Work Act 2009 relating to dispute resolution and enterprise agreement making.

Making an application

One or more employer and employee parties at a workplace or business who agree to the Commission providing assistance can make an application. To do so, parties should use Form F79 – Application for the Commission’s assistance to promote cooperative and productive workplaces and prevent disputes (Word).

All applications received will be assessed by the Commission, in consultation with the parties, to determine whether the application is appropriate for the New Approaches jurisdiction.

Allocation to a Commission Member

Parties can request the assistance of a specific Commission Member in their application form. Requests will be assessed and accommodated where possible.

If no Commission Member is specified in the application, a Commission Member will be allocated to the matter as part of the application assessment process.

Process overview

Please note: this model illustrates an overview of the New Approaches process. Some applications may be more complex, so the process may require additional steps.