The Law Handbook 2024

1058 Section 11: Rights, activism and fair treatment at work Other terms Modern awards may also include terms relating to outworkers, industry specific redundancy schemes (e.g. the construction industry redundancy fund) and incidental and machinery terms ( see ss 140–142 FWAct). Modern awards may also provide additional detail of the NES required for the specific industry. Miscellaneous Award As part of the award-modernisation task, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (now called the Fair Work Commission ( FWC )) created the Miscellaneous Award, which may apply to non-managerial employees who do not work in accounting, finance, legal, human resources, public relations or information technology and are not covered by another modern award. Which award applies to my job? Determining whether a federal award applies to a job, or which award applies, is not easy. The best source of information for union members is their union. There are also tools and resources available on the Fair Work Ombudsman website. Enterprise agreements Since 1 July 2009, statutory agreements can be made under the FW Act. These are known as enterprise agreements. Types of enterprise agreements Under section 172 of the FW Act, there are two types of enterprise agreements: 1 single enterprise agreements; and 2 multi-enterprise agreements. Single enterprise agreements There are two types of single enterprise agreements: 1 agreements between an employer and existing employees; and 2 greenfields agreements. Employer and existing employees A single enterprise agreement can be made between an employer and employees who are employed at the time the agreement is made. In these agreements, ‘the employer’ can actually be two or more employers that are ‘single-interest’ employers. Single-interest employers are employers that are in a joint venture or common enterprise or are related corporations. They can also be employers that are authorised to be single-interest employers by the FWC (e.g. franchisees or other employers where the federal Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations has made a declaration). Greenfields agreements A greenfields agreement is a single enterprise agreement that is made in relation to a new enterprise of an employer before any employees are employed. The parties to a greenfields agreement are the employer and one or more relevant employee associations (usually trade unions). Multi-enterprise agreements Multi-enterprise agreements can be made in two ways. First, a multi-enterprise agreement can be made between two or more employers that are not single- interest employers and employees who are employed at the time the agreement is made. Second, a multi-enterprise agreement can be made for a genuine new enterprise (a greenfields agreement) between two or more employers (that are not all single-interest employers) and one or more relevant employee associations (usually trade unions). Approval procedures for enterprise agreements Better off overall test Since 1 July 2009, enterprise agreements have needed to pass the ‘better off overall test’ ( BOOT ) to be approved by the FWC. Agreements made before 27 March 2006 and between 28 March 2008 and 30 June 2009 were subject to the ‘no disadvantage test’ before being approved. Section 193 of the FW Act provides that a non- greenfields agreement passes the BOOT if the FWC is satisfied that each employee would be better off