A coal mining union will be the first in Australia to put new multi-enterprise bargaining laws to the test.
Multi-enterprise bargaining laws were significantly modified in June 2023 via the Secure Jobs, Better Pay Amendment to the Fair Work Act.
Employment law specialist and partner at Corrs Chambers Westgarth Anthony Longland said that the amendments represented the most significant changes to Australia’s bargaining system since the introduction of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).
“The changes usher in a fundamental shift in the bargaining dynamic, leading to an alteration of power between employers and employees in many respects,” he said.
But what does it all mean?
Enterprise bargaining is the process of negotiating a legal agreement which sets out minimum employment terms and conditions. Typically, this covers things like rates of pay, penalty rates, overtime, standard hours, leave, allowances, deductions, and so on.
Negotiations generally take place between the employer/employers, their employees, and their bargaining representatives – usually unions.
A multi-enterprise agreement (MEA), on the other hand, is negotiated between multiple employers and their workforces.
Fundamentally, the recent amendments to the law will make multi-enterprise bargaining easier, as employers with ‘common interests’ (such as coal producers in NSW) may now be covered by the one MEA. In other words, whole swathes of an industry (related by either geography, regulatory framework, nature of the work, etc) to be covered by the same contractual terms.
What’s more, the Fair Work Commission was also vested with the power to compel employers to the bargaining table, resolve MEA bargaining disputes through arbitration, and add common interest employers to a pre-existing MEA against their will.
There is also concern that MEA bargaining may lead to industry-wide strikes.
In the present matter taking place on NSW coal mines, the Collieries’ Staff and Officials Association (a coal mining union) has launched a bid for a multi-employer agreement across five mine sites owned by different employers.
The proposed agreement covers some 216 statutory supervisors, without whom a mine is not legally allowed to operate.
Though the agreement will seek a pay rise for workers, the main conditions concern the payment of leave on termination, redundancy pay, accident pay, and the payout of annual and long service leave at a total salary rate.
The Collieries’ Staff and Officials Association bid is one to keep an eye on as the new laws kick into gear.
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