Landis & Gyr Pty Limited

[2024] FWCA 2534

[2024] FWCA 2534

FAIR WORK COMMISSION

DECISION

Fair Work Act 2009

s.185—Enterprise agreement

Landis & Gyr Pty Limited

(AG2024/2194)

LANDIS+GYR LAVERTON NORTH OPERATIONS SINGLE ENTERPRISE AGREEMENT 2024.

Manufacturing and associated industries
COMMISSIONER MIRABELLA	MELBOURNE, 16 JULY 2024

Application for approval of the Landis+Gyr Laverton North Operations Single Enterprise Agreement 2024.

1. Landis & Gyr Pty Limited (the Employer) has made an application for approval of an enterprise agreement known as the Landis+Gyr Laverton North Operations Single Enterprise Agreement 2024 (the Agreement) pursuant to s.185 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (the FW Act). The Agreement is a single enterprise agreement.

1. The Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Secure Jobs, Better Pay) Act 2022 (Cth) made a number of changes to enterprise agreement approval processes in Part 2-4 of the FW Act, that commenced operation on 6 June 2023. The notification time for the Agreement was 12 October 2023 and the Agreement was made on 4 June 2024. Accordingly, both the genuine agreement and the better off overall test requirements are those applying on and from 6 June 2023.

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

1. Subject to the undertaking referred to above, and on the basis of the material contained in the application and accompanying declaration, I am satisfied that each of the requirements of sections 186, 187, 188 and 190, as are relevant to this application for approval, has been met.

1. The notice of employee representational rights was drafted using an outdated template and was, therefore, not in its prescribed form. Pursuant to s.188(5), I am satisfied that the Agreement would have been genuinely agreed to but for the minor procedural error made in relation to the requirement in s.174(1A) of the FW Act. I am satisfied that the employees covered by the Agreement were not likely to have been disadvantaged by the error. As a result, I am satisfied that the Agreement has been genuinely agreed to within the meaning of s.188(5) of the FW Act.

1. Pursuant to s.202(4) of the FW Act, the model flexibility term prescribed by the Fair Work Regulations 2009 is taken to be a term of the Agreement.

1. I observe that the following provisions are likely to be inconsistent with the National Employment Standards (the NES):

• Clause 13.9: Family and domestic violence leave

• Clause 33: Abandonment of employment

1. However, I am satisfied that the Employer’s written undertaking in Annexure A means that the more beneficial entitlements of the NES will prevail where there is an inconsistency between the Agreement and the NES.

1. The “Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union” known as the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union and the Communications, Electrical, Electronic, Energy, Information, Postal, Plumbing and Allied Services Union of Australia, being bargaining representatives for the Agreement, have given notice under s.183 of the FW Act that they want the Agreement to cover them. In accordance with s.201(2), and based on the declarations provided by the organisations, I note that the Agreement covers these organisations.

1. The Agreement was approved on 16 July 2024 and, in accordance with s.54, will operate from 23 July 2024. The nominal expiry date of the Agreement is 31 March 2027.

COMMISSIONER

Printed by authority of the Commonwealth Government Printer

<AE525359  PR776815>

Annexure A