Fair Work Commission

Introduction

The Fair Work Commission has conducted a research project to explore the provision of resources to those seeking to develop enterprise agreement clauses which may contribute to workplace productivity.

As part of this project, all employers, employees and their representatives were invited to nominate enterprise agreement clauses that they believed were innovative or enhance productivity.

These nominations, along with an overview of relevant literature and data, formed the basis for the preparation of a report.

The report

Productivity & innovation in enterprise agreement clauses: an overview of literature, data & case studies at the workplace level

The Fair Work Commission has published the Productivity and innovation in enterprise agreement clauses: an overview of literature, data and case studies at the workplace level report.

The report aims to provide a resource which is:

• a starting point for those with an interest in identifying or developing clauses in enterprise agreements which may contribute to workplace productivity and innovation, and
• a source of information to guide any future work seeking to explore the development of more targeted resources in this area.

To do this, the report provides an overview of literature and Australian data on productivity, and presents qualitative case studies on a selection of enterprise agreement clauses nominated by employers, employees or their representatives for being productivity enhancing or innovative.

The report was prepared by Commission staff for initiative 29 under the Commission’s Future Directions theme of productivity and engaging with industry, as detailed in our Future Directions 2014-15: Continuing the change program.

The report’s approach was guided by a review panel made up of representatives of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Australian Industry Group and Australian Council of Trade Unions. The review panel assisted with the scoping of the project, selection of clauses for inclusion in case studies and review of the report.