Enterprise bargaining agreement
Enterprise bargaining is an Australian term for a form of
By definition, an agreement, is the outcome of a negotiation, and a decision, involving multiple parties. (See Fair trade)
On the one hand,
Industrial Awards and the Fair Work Act
Unlike
Parties endorse proposed enterprise agreements between themselves (in the case of employees the matter goes to a vote). The
History
Enterprise Bargaining Agreements were first introduced in Australia under the Prices and Incomes Accord in 1991 (Mark VII). They later became the centrepiece of the Australian industrial relations system when the Accord was next revised in 1993 (Mark VIII). This ended nearly a century of centralised wage-fixing based industrial relations.
How an enterprise agreement is made
The Fair Work Act 2009 provides a simple, flexible and fair framework that assists employers and employees to bargain in good faith to make an enterprise agreement.[3]
Employers, employees and their bargaining representatives are involved in the process of bargaining for a proposed enterprise agreement. An employer must notify their employees of the right to be represented by a bargaining representative during the bargaining of an enterprise agreement (other than a greenfields agreement) as soon as possible, and not later than 14 days after the notification time for the agreement (usually the start of bargaining). The notification should be given to each current employee who will be covered by the enterprise agreement.[2]
Use of enterprise agreements
A standard enterprise agreement would last for three years.
EAs had one unique feature in Australia: whilst negotiating a federal enterprise bargaining agreement, a group of employees or a trade union could, without legal penalties, undertake industrial action (including strikes) in pursuit of their claims .
Issues regarding enterprise agreements
A major legal question associated with enterprise agreements stemmed from the
The future of EAs in Australian industrial law
In the context of
Since the Fair Work Act was enacted, parties to Australian federal collective agreements now[update] lodge their agreements with Fair Work Australia for approval. Before an enterprise agreement will be approved a member of the tribunal must be satisfied that employees employed under the agreement will be 'Better Off Overall' than if they were employed under the relevant modern award.
See also
- Collective bargaining
- Sectoral collective bargaining
- UK labour law
- US labor law
References
- ^ Forsyth, Anthony. "There's one big reason wages are stagnating: the enterprise bargaining system is broken, and in terminal decline". The Conversation. Retrieved 28 August 2022.
- ^ a b "Enterprise Bargaining Fact Sheet". FairWork. Australian Government. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
- ^ "FAIR WORK ACT 2009 - SECT 171 Objects of this Part".
- .