Epworth Foundation T/A Epworth HealthCare

[2021] FWCA 2325

[2021] FWCA 2325

FAIR WORK COMMISSION

DECISION

Fair Work Act 2009
s.185—Enterprise agreement

Epworth Foundation T/A Epworth HealthCare
(AG2021/4411)

EPWORTH HEALTHCARE NURSES AND MIDWIVES ENTERPRISE AGREEMENT 2020-2024

Health and welfare services
DEPUTY PRESIDENT YOUNG	MELBOURNE, 28 APRIL 2021

Application for approval of the Epworth HealthCare Nurses and Midwives Enterprise Agreement 2020-2024.

[1] Epworth Foundation T/A Epworth HealthCare (the Employer) has made an application for approval of an enterprise agreement known as the Epworth HealthCare Nurses and Midwives Enterprise Agreement 2020-2024 (the Agreement) pursuant to s 185 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act). The Agreement is a single-enterprise agreement.

[2] The copy of the NERR provided to employees refers to the Agreement as the Nurses & Midwives Enterprise Agreement 2020, however, clause 1 of the Agreement provides that the name of the Agreement is the Epworth HealthCare Nurses and Midwives Enterprise Agreement 2020-2024. The Employer provided submissions in relation to this error on 16 April 2021. I am satisfied having regard to those submissions and the Full Bench decision in Huntsman Chemical Company Australia Pty Ltd T/A RMAX Rigid Cellular Plastics & Others 1 (Huntsman)that this constitutes a minor technical or procedural error for the purposes s 188(2)(a) of Act. Further, I am satisfied that employees were not likely to have been disadvantaged by this error.

[3] Accordingly, notwithstanding the matters identified in paragraph 2 above, I am satisfied that the Agreement has been genuinely agreed within the meaning of s 188(2).

[4] The Employer has provided written undertakings. A copy of the undertakings is attached at Annexure A. I am satisfied that the undertakings will not cause financial detriment to any employee covered by the Agreement and the undertakings will not result in substantial changes to the Agreement. The undertakings are taken to be a term of the Agreement.

[5] Subject to the undertakings referred to above, and on the basis of the material contained in the application, and the accompanying statutory declaration and the additional information provided by the Employer, I am satisfied that each of the requirements of ss 186, 187, 188 and 190 as are relevant to this application for approval have been met.

[6] The Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, being a bargaining representative for the Agreement, has given notice under s 183 of the Act that it seeks to be covered by the Agreement. In accordance with s 201(2) and based on the statutory declaration provided by the organisation, I note that the Agreement covers the organisation.

[7] The Agreement was approved on 28 April 2021 and, in accordance with s 54, will operate from 5 May 2021. The nominal expiry date of the Agreement is 28 February 2025.

DEPUTY PRESIDENT

Annexure A

 1   [2019] FWCFB 318

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