Benmax Pty Ltd
[2010] FWA 3503
•3 MAY 2010
[2010] FWA 3503 |
|
DECISION |
Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 2009
s.185 - Application for approval of single enterprise agreement
(AG2010/747)
Benmax Pty Ltd Plumbing and Mechanical Services Canberra Collective Agreement 2009-2012
COMMISSIONER DEEGAN | CANBERRA, 3 MAY 2010 |
[1] This decision concerns an application filed by the Air Conditioning and Mechanical Contractors Association of NSW (“the applicant”) on behalf of Benmax Pty Ltd for approval of the Benmax Pty Ltd Plumbing and Mechanical Services Canberra Collective Agreement 2009-2012 (“the agreement”) pursuant to section 185 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act).
Legislation
[2] Section 181 of the Act states:
181 Employers may request employees to approve a proposed enterprise agreement
(1) An employer that will be covered by a proposed enterprise agreement may request the employees employed at the time who will be covered by the agreement to approve the agreement by voting for it.
(2) The request must not be made until at least 21 days after the day on which the last notice under subsection 173(1) (which deals with giving notice of employee representational rights) in relation to the agreement is given.
(3) Without limiting subsection (1), the employer may request that the employees vote by ballot or by an electronic method.
[3] It is a mandatory requirement of s.181(2) of the Act that the request to approve an enterprise agreement not be made by the employer until at least 21 days after the last notice of employee representational rights is given.
[4] The Form 17 – Employer Statutory Declaration in support of the application states that the date on which the employer provided the last notice to employees of their representational rights was 25 January 2010, that the employees were first requested to vote for the agreement on 19 January 2010 and that the agreement was made on 17 February 2010.
[5] On 19 April 2010, I requested my associate to contact the applicant by email seeking confirmation that the dates provided in the statutory declaration were correct. No response had been received.
[6] The information relied upon was supplied by way of statutory declaration and it is incumbent upon the persons making the statutory declaration to ensure the information provided in it is correct, as penalties apply for making false statutory declarations.
[7] On the basis of the information supplied in the statutory declaration which accompanied the application for approval, the mandatory requirements of s.181 of the Act have not been complied with and I am unable to approve the agreement.
[8] The application for approval is dismissed.
COMMISSIONER
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