Changes to the Fair Work Act (2009) through the Secure Jobs, Better Pay legislation have made it easier for a number of employers with common interest to bargain for a single interest enterprise agreement.
The amendments to the Fair Work Act include:
- No longer requiring Ministerial authorisation to initiate bargaining.
- Some of the employees must be represented by a registered union.
- Remove the conditions around the single interest definition. Relevant matters for the Fair Work Commission to consider include:
- the nature of these enterprises,
- the commonality of terms and conditions of employment,
- their geographical location and
- common regularity schemes.
- That the business operations of employers in the grouping is reasonably comparable.
The Fair Work Commission will also be seeking the opinion of the employers and employee bargaining representatives about proceeding under a common Agreement process. The Commission is able to exclude certain employers if they meet specified conditions such as having a positive bargaining history with their employees.
Businesses who have existing current Agreements cannot be included in this single interest stream. Employers with less than 20 employees can only be included by consent.
There are voluntary and involuntary avenues for new employers to be added to existing (Fair Work Commission approved) single interest bargaining Agreements through a formal variation to an Agreement.
It is anticipated that this single interest bargaining stream has been designed for certain industries with similar costings and Government regulations which generally have low union membership such as Aged Care and Preschools etc.
These changes are effective from 6 June 2023
If you are an employer operating in such an industry and wish to avoid being caught up in this process, please contact Hunter Employee Relations for advice.
Kind Regards
Michael Schmidt
M 0438 129 728
www.hunteremployeerelations.com.au
Industrial Relations - Employment Law - Workplace Performance
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