Recent decisions of Fair Work Australia (FWA) show that mandatory pre-approval steps must be strictly complied with, otherwise enterprise agreements will not be approved.
We consider some aspects of the law surrounding the negotiation of enterprise agreements, which might surprise some employers not closely involved in the process recently.
Enterprise agreements under the Fair Work Act? Our question to you would be, "Why do you want to do one?" The cost and aggravation might significantly outweigh the benefits, particularly as uncertainty under the system has grown significantly.
The devil is always in the detail...watch out for the changes under the Fair Work Act relating to FWA's power to arbitrate disputes, particularly when negotiating an enterprise agreement. Even existing ones may start to mean something different than they did before...
Our parent company (ER Strategies Pty Ltd) Director Steve Champion sees the new good faith bargaining requirements as being one of the more important changes introduced by the Fair Work Act , and one that is likely to be seen as a turning point in the Australian Industrial Relations system in years to come.
If you are about to embark on some important enterprise bargaining negotiations and don't know where to start, or alternatively want to think about how you can do it better, you should find our Enterprise Bargaining flowchart of great benefit.