Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move Greens amendments (19), (20) and (21) on sheet 5285:

(19)  Schedule 1, item 1, page 24 (line 17) after “instruments that”, insert “if not an award, pass the fairness test and that,”.

(20)  Schedule 1, item 1, page 24 (lines 24 and 25), omit “, to the extent that the designated award contains protected award conditions”.

(21)  Schedule 1, item 1, page 25 (line 14), at the end of subsection 346Y(5), add:

            ; (j)    a preserved State agreement;

             (k)    a notional agreement preserving a State award.

These amendments relate to what happens when an AWA fails to pass the fairness test. Currently, it goes back to the previous agreement, even if it was a pre 7 May agreement that may not or would not have passed the fairness test. These amendments provide that if an agreement fails the test you go back to the previous agreement, if it passes the test, or, failing that, onto the appropriate award. These amendments close a loophole and the potential for employees to be worse off if their agreement fails the test. I did raise this during my second reading speech. We are concerned about what happens to an employee if an AWA fails the fairness test and that, if the agreement fails and it goes back to a previous agreement, it may in fact leave them worse off. We believe that these amendments deal with that and make the process fairer.