Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I move government amendment (37) on sheet PA412:

(37)  Page 119 (after line 19), after Schedule 5, insert:

Schedule 5A—Transitional treatment of State employment agreements

Workplace Relations Act 1996

1  After clause 16 of Schedule 8

Insert:

16A  Commission may extend or vary preserved collective State agreements

        (1)    The Commission may, on application by any person bound by a preserved collective State agreement, by order:

             (a)    extend the nominal expiry date of the agreement; or

             (b)    vary the terms of the agreement.

        (2)    However, before making the order, the Commission must be satisfied that:

             (a)    all parties bound by the agreement genuinely agree to the extension or variation; and

             (b)    none of the parties have, after the introduction day:

                   (i)    organised or engaged in, or threatened to organise or engage in, industrial action in relation to another party to the agreement; or

                  (ii)    applied for a protected action ballot under section 451 in relation to proposed industrial action; and

             (c)    in the case of a variation—the agreement as varied would not result, on balance, in a reduction in the overall terms and conditions of employment of the employees bound by the agreement under:

                   (i)    any relevant State award in relation to the employees; and

                  (ii)    any law of the Commonwealth, or of a State or Territory, that the Commission considers relevant.

        (3)    If the Commission extends the nominal expiry date of the agreement, the extended date cannot be more than 3 years after the date on which the order is made.

        (4)    The employees bound by the agreement are taken, for the purposes of paragraph (2)(a), genuinely to agree to the extension or variation if:

             (a)    the employer gives all of the employees bound by the agreement at the time of making the extension or variation a reasonable opportunity genuinely to decide whether they agree to the extension or variation; and

             (b)    either:

                   (i)    if the decision is made by a vote—a majority of those employees who cast a valid vote; or

                  (ii)    otherwise—a majority of those employees;

                      genuinely decide that they agree to the extension or variation.

        (5)    To avoid doubt, the terms and conditions of employment under a relevant State award may, for the purposes of paragraph (2)(c), include terms and conditions that did not apply on the reform commencement, or that have been varied since the reform commencement.

        (6)    In this clause:

introduction day means the day on which the Bill that became the Workplace Relations Amendment (Transition to Forward with Fairness) Act 2008 was introduced into the House of Representatives.

relevant State award, in relation to an employee, means:

             (a)    if, immediately before the reform commencement, the employee was bound by, or a party to, the original collective agreement to which the preserved collective State agreement referred to in subsection (1) relates, under the terms of that agreement or a State or Territory industrial law as in force at that time—the State award that would have bound the employee at that time but for that agreement; or

             (b)    otherwise—the State award that would have bound, or but for the application of a State employment agreement would have bound, the employee at that time if the employee had been employed by the employer at that time.

2  After clause 21E of Schedule 8

Insert:

Division 5A—Coercion

3  After subclause 22(1) of Schedule 8

Insert:

     (1A)    A person must not:

             (a)    take or threaten to take any industrial action or other action; or

             (b)    refrain or threaten to refrain from taking any action;

with intent to coerce another person to agree, or not to agree, to the extension of the nominal expiry date of, or the variation of, a preserved collective State agreement under clause 16A.

Note:                The heading to clause 22 of Schedule 8 is altered by adding at the end “etc.”.

4  Subclause 22(2) of Schedule 8

Omit “Subclause (1)”, substitute “This clause”.

5  Subclause 22(3) of Schedule 8

Omit “subclause (1)”, substitute “this clause”.

This amendment allows for the variation of preserved collective state agreements where all parties agree.

Question agreed to.