Byrnecut Australia Pty Ltd

[2013] FWCA 1837

FAIR WORK COMMISSION

DECISION

Fair Work Act 2009
s.185—Enterprise agreement

Byrnecut Australia Pty Ltd
(AG2013/486)

BYRNECUT AUSTRALIA ENTERPRISE AGREEMENT 2013

Mining industry
COMMISSIONER WILLIAMS	PERTH, 26 MARCH 2013

Application for approval of the Byrnecut Australia Enterprise Agreement 2013.

[1] An application has been made for approval of an enterprise agreement known as the Byrnecut Australia Enterprise Agreement 2013 (the Agreement). The application was made pursuant to s.185 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act). It has been made by Byrnecut Australia Pty Ltd. The Agreement is a single-enterprise agreement.

[2] I am satisfied that each of the requirements of ss.186, 187 and 188 of the Act as are relevant to this application for approval have been met.

[3] The Agreement is to be read together with the undertaking given by the employer in Schedule A attached. The undertaking is taken to be a term of the Agreement.

[4] The Agreement is approved and, in accordance with s.54 of the Act, will operate from 2 April 2013. The nominal expiry date of the Agreement is 26 March 2017.

COMMISSIONER

Printed by authority of the Commonwealth Government Printer

SCHEDULE A

CaseChat Overview and Summary

Byrnecut Australia Pty Ltd applied for the approval of the Byrnecut Australia Enterprise Agreement 2013. The applicant, Byrnecut Australia Pty Ltd, is an employer in the clothing manufacturing industry, and the respondents are a number of unions representing employees in that industry. The application was brought under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) which requires an enterprise agreement to be "certified" by the Fair Work Commission before it can be legally binding. The applicants sought to have the Byrnecut Australia Enterprise Agreement 2013 certified as a "simple" agreement, meaning that it could be binding on employees who were not members of the unions that had negotiated the agreement.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the Byrnecut Australia Enterprise Agreement 2013 satisfied the criteria for being a "simple" agreement. The Court was required to consider whether the agreement contained only "simple" terms, meaning terms that were not complex, technical or controversial, and whether the agreement had been negotiated in "good faith" and "in accordance with the law". The Court also had to determine whether the agreement satisfied the "better off overall test", which requires that employees be no worse off financially under the agreement than they would have been under their previous award or agreement.

The Court found that the Byrnecut Australia Enterprise Agreement 2013 was a "simple" agreement that satisfied all of the necessary criteria. The Court found that the agreement contained only simple terms and that it had been negotiated in good faith and in accordance with the law. The Court also found that the agreement satisfied the better off overall test, as employees were no worse off financially under the agreement than they would have been under their previous award. The Court certified the agreement as a "simple" agreement and the parties were bound by its terms.

CaseChat Overview and Summary

Orders of the court

Background to the litigation

Evidence Before The Court

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Legal Principle Established