New collective agreement making framework
What will you do if you are approached
by your employees or a union to make an agreement under the new workplace laws?
Are you aware of what your obligations are under the new framework?
New agreement making options will also be reviewed in an important information
session for employers, which will explain the principles of collective
bargaining, the form and content of enterprise agreements and the role of bargaining
representatives in negotiating an agreement. This session will focus on the
procedure for making enterprise agreements under the Fair Work Act 2009, including
mandatory, permitted and unlawful content, as well as Individual Flexibility
Agreements and arrangements for high income earners.
The application of the Better off Overall Test (to replace the No-Disadvantage
Test) is canvassed as well as the requirements of the new good faith bargaining
obligations, the role of Fair Work Australia in facilitating bargaining, and
the entire process, from start to finish, of how to go about negotiating a Fair
Work enterprise agreement, and having it approved.
It includes whether bargaining can be forced
upon parties, what is a bargaining representative and what are their rights,
what can be bargained for, how one side can apply legitimate pressure to the
other side to change its bargaining position and if (and when) the new
industrial umpire Fair Work Australia can impose bargaining rules or arbitrate
an outcome against the wishes of the bargaining parties.
If the Patricks dispute had arisen under The
New Agreement Framework, would the outcome have been different?