An Australian Labour Agreement (AWA) was a kind of formalized individual contract negotiated between an employer and a worker in Australia that existed from 1996 to 2009. Employers could propose an AWA as a condition of employment. They were registered by labour counsel and did not require a dispute resolution procedure. These agreements only worked at the federal level. The AWAs were individual written agreements on the conditions of employment between the employer and the worker in Australia, in accordance with the 1996 Labour Relations Act. An AWA could repeal conditions of employment in national or territorial laws, with the exception of those relating to occupational health protection, workers` compensation or training agreements. An AWA only had to meet Australia`s highest standard of fair payment and minimum conditions. The agreements were not obligated to introduce effective dispute resolution procedures and could not contain prohibited content. The agreements were no more than five years old; approved, encouraged and registered by the Employment Agency; Excluding a premium and prohibited trade union actions with regard to the details of the agreement for the duration of the agreement. The introduction of AWA has been a highly controversial topic of labour relations in Australia. Enterprise agreements are collective agreements between employers and workers on employment conditions.

The Fair Labour Commission can provide information on the process of drafting enterprise agreements, evaluate and approve agreements. We can also deal with disputes over the terms of the agreements. Start with our document search and try to search for full-text chords. Fair Work Commission publishes enterprise agreements on this website. In April 2007, the Sydney Morning Herald reported that it had received unpublished government tables showing that 27.8% of the agreements had eliminated the conditions that were to be protected by law. [12] [13] The tables were based on a sample of AWA agreements. [14] Enterprise agreements can be tailored to the needs of certain companies. An agreement should be overall better for an employee when compared to the corresponding bonuses or rewards. On March 19, 2008, the Senate passed a bill preventing the development of new AEAs and introducing provisions for the transfer of AWA workers into intermediate contracts. [18] In the federal public service, the Department of Employment and Labour Relations reported that as of December 31, 2004, out of 124,500 permanent employees in the public and parliamentary service, 11,085 AWAs (for 1928 the Main Executive Service (SES), for which AWAs are mandatory and 9,157 other employees.

[5] The remaining permanent staff were covered by 101 certified agreements as of 30 March 2005, including 70 trade union enterprise agreements and 31 non-union enterprise agreements. [6] As of May 2004, AEAs accounted for about 2.4% of the workforce. [1] Mining companies have advanced the agreements with some success and have offered substantial wage increases to workers who have opted for an AWA.