Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Yesterday’s Trends in Enterprise Bargaining report shows that agreement making has reached record levels. There are almost 24,000 current agreements covering a staggering 2.4 million employees. Employers and employees are getting on with bargaining under the Fair Work Act, with almost 6,500 new agreements covering 700,000 employees being made to the end of September. We have a system of collective bargaining agreements based on principles of good-faith bargaining, and the early signs show that people are doing the right thing. Only 18 good-faith bargaining orders were issued in the last financial year. This is only one order for every 400 agreements lodged during that period. Also, industrial disputation continues its downward trend, with only 2.5 working days lost per thousand for the June 2010 quarter. These are some of the major indicators that demonstrate that the Fair Work Act is working well.