Workplace Relations Tribunal in Australia

Questions: 1.How does the Fair Work Commission make agreements? 2.How does the Fair Work Commission approve agreements? 3.What are the steps that are involved in the making and approving of agreements? 4.What are the strengths and the weaknesses of this process"? Answers: Introduction Commonwealth Court of Conciliation was established as Australias first workplace relations panel under the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904. The institution developed due to social, economic legislative changes thus, Fair Work Australia was formed which later came to be known as Fair Work Commission. Fair Work Commission is the current national workplace relations tribunal in Australia. The commission is an independent body which functions on various professional fields sectors the functions are carried out by the members of the commission. Some of the functions are related with the conditions wages of employment, a lookout on the action bargaining of the industries enterprises, providing solutions to industrial disputes both internal external, status of the employees in the industrial market other matters of the workplace as well. The whole operation is overseen by the President with the help from his administrative staffs. 1. Fair Work Commission provides information about the process of agreements made by the enterprises. Enterprise agreements such as, the terms conditions of the employment are made between an employer an employee. The commission also provides information about the disputes that take place during agreements as well as the approval disapproval of agreements (Westacott, 2017). The agreement of an enterprise can be formed between more than one employers and more than two employees along with their respected representatives. On the other hand, when no employees are employed, the employer himself negotiates with other employee unions. The approval of the agreements of the enterprise might vary depending on the types of agreement. There are three types of agreements: Single enterprise agreements involve a single employer or more employers (basically, franchisees) co-operating together is essentially a single enterprise. Multi enterprise agreements involve two or more employers who are definitely not single interest employers. Greenfields agreements involve one or more employers of a new enterprise or who are going to establish an enterprise but have not yet employed any employees for the conduct of the enterprise. Agreements like this can either be a single enterprise agreement or a multi enterprise agreement. The agreements of enterprises contain various matters such as, the conditions of employment, payment of the employees, consultative method, providing solutions to industrial disputes also about the deduction of the wages of an employee for any purpose. However, they can never include any kind of illegal terms or conditions. After the agreements are made, the process of bargaining comes into light. Through this process the employers the employees are able to negotiate the terms and conditions of the agreements (Macneil et al., 2014). 2. After the completion of the bargaining process of the agreements, certain pre-approval steps need to be taken to ensure that the agreements can be approved by the Fair Work Commission. The employer should take the responsibility to clearly explain about all the terms and conditions of the agreement to the employees the effect that it will provide. After accepting the terms conditions, all the employees need to vote for the agreement to show their approval. A successful voting may occur only when the agreements are properly made. For a single enterprise, the majority of the employees of the employer need to cast their vote to endorse the agreement. For multi-enterprise, the majority of employees of at least one employers need to cast valid votes to endorse the agreement. Now, if the employees of all the employers dont approve the agreement then it will only cover those employers their employees who have approved it. In the case of Greenfields agreement, each employer each of th eir employees need to sign their approval for the agreement (McPhail, Jerrard and Southcombe, 2014). All the agreements of the employees contains both lawful unlawful contents. The lawful contents are: The matters related with the business relationship between the employers the employees who are going to be covered by the terms of the agreement. The matters related with the relationship between an employer the union of the employees which will also be covered by the agreement. If under any situation, the wages of the employees are deducted then it also should be covered by the agreement. The method or the technique of the operation of the agreement. On the other hand, all the agreements should not contain any kind of unlawful content, such as, Any objectionable or discriminatory term against the employees or the union, a term which will enable an employee or an employer to opt out from the process of the agreement, a term which is related with illegal unfair decision to dismiss any employee who has completed a minimum amount of the employment period, a term which acts in a detrimental way to any employee as a person a term which is not consistent accordingly to the action of the industrial provisions (Angwin, 2017). 3. After the voting session, the agreements need to be applied to the Fair Work Commission for the approval. Respective representatives from every enterprises need to apply to the Commission for the agreement using the Form F16. All the application for the agreements must be submitted to the Commission within those 14 days period when the agreements were made the representatives must also submit along with the application a legitimate signed copy of the agreement as well. The applications can be send to the Commission office through e-mail, express post or even in person. The applications can also be lodged through the Online Lodgment Service (Forsyth, Gahan, Howe, 2011). 4. The commission must be satisfied with several contents of the agreement before providing with any kind of approval, such as, the Commission will make sure that the pre-approval steps of the agreements have been determined by the enterprises and that the agreements have been sincerely agreed by the employees and that they have not been forced upon. The Commission also have to oversee that whether the agreement has passes the better off overall test that it does not contain any terms through which the NES can be excluded. The agreement should not contain any illegal terms it must provide several procedures for the settlement of any disputes internally or externally. The agreement should also include a consultation a flexibility clause as well (Townsend, Wilkinson, Burgess, 2013) In many cases the commission may give an approval on the agreements of the enterprises including of several undertakings. For instance, the Commission may approve an agreement that may not have met the many requirements of the Fair Work Act 2009. This may happen only when the Commission is satisfied with a written undertaking by certain enterprise. The written undertaking will only be approved if it does not cause any financial or payment crisis to the employees as well as it will not likely to bring any significant changes to the agreement. After approving all the agreements of the enterprises, the Commission will officially announce their decision along with the approved agreement as well as with any written undertakings which have been accepted. All the agreements, approvals decisions will be published on their official website a copy of each approved agreements will be sent to every parties or enterprises involved. Conclusion The Fair Work Commission is one of the best workplace relations tribunal for the people of Australia. The establishment of this commission has provided solutions to every crisis which are related with every professional sectors or enterprises along with their employers employees. The Commission does a coverage of all the disputes that take place within the enterprises, such as, agreements made between the employers of the enterprises and their respected employees. No agreement made between an employer an employee is valid until unless it has been approved by the Fair Work Commission itself. Therefore, every enterprise needs to send their bargaining representative to lodge an application with the Commission to get an approval for their agreements. It is vital for the Commission to follow certain steps before approving the any agreement. Thus, the enterprise should meet all the detail points before forming an agreement between the employers the employees. Sometimes, agreements mig ht not meet all the needs of the Commission but those agreements might still be accepted approved if the Commission is satisfied by written undertaking by the enterprise. The process of bargaining is clearly putting the Australian industrial structure in a negative aspect. It is also hampering the economic, social legislative structure of the country as well. Thus, the commission needs to revive back the fundamentals of the bargaining of the enterprise which they intended to achieve or conquer. This will help the employers, employees the unions to work together to face the commercial challenges together or else, Australian Industries will not be able to participate in the global competition. The Commission should try to modernize the bargaining system of the enterprise by suppressing them to focus only on those bargains which are relevant to the enterprises, employers the employees. By doing so, there is also a scope for economic prosperity in the country. References Angwin, M 2017, EBAs are now just a blockage to productivity, Australian Financial Review, 14 February, p. 39. Forsyth, A, Gahan, P Howe, J 2011, Weighty measures: bargaining in balance, Australian Financial Review, 15 November, p. 63 Macneil, J., Arnold Waring, P., Bray, M. and Cooper, R. (2014).Employment relations : theory and practice. 1st ed. McGraw-Hill Education. McPhail, R., Jerrard, M. and Southcombe, A. (2014). Employment Relations: An Integrated Approach.Cengage Learning Australia. [online] Available at: https://cengage.com.au/product/title/employment-relations-an-integrated-approach/isbn/9780170254694 [Accessed 31 Mar. 2017]. Townsend, K, Wilkinson, A Burgess, J 2013, Is enterprise bargaining still a better way of working?,Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 100-117. Westacott, J. (2017). ENTERPRISE BARGAINING ON THE BRINK OF FAILURE.Business Council of Australia. [online] Available at: https://www.bca.com.au/media/enterprise-bargaining-on-the-brink-of-failure [Accessed 31 Mar. 2017].