Mount Barker Waldorf School - A School for Rudolf Steiner Education Inc T/A Mount Barker Waldorf School

[2022] FWCA 259

[2022] FWCA 259

FAIR WORK COMMISSION

DECISION

Fair Work Act 2009

s. 185—Enterprise agreement

Mount Barker Waldorf School - A School for Rudolf Steiner Education Inc T/A Mount Barker Waldorf School

(AG2021/8834)

Mount Barker Waldorf School Enterprise Agreement 2021

Educational services
COMMISSIONER MIRABELLA	MELBOURNE, 4 FEBRUARY 2022

Application for approval of the Mount Barker Waldorf School Enterprise Agreement 2021.

1. The Mount Barker Waldorf School – A School for Rudolf Steiner Education Inc T/A Mount Barker Waldorf School (the Employer) has made an application for approval of an enterprise agreement known as the Mount Barker Waldorf School Enterprise Agreement 2021 (the Agreement) pursuant to s. 185 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act). The Agreement is a single enterprise agreement.

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, have been met.

1. The Employer provided to employees a notice of employee representational rights that contained content that was not prescribed by the regulations. Pursuant to s. 188(2), 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)(b). 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(2) of the Act.

1. I observe that certain provisions of the Agreement are likely to be inconsistent with the National Employment Standards (NES). However, noting clause 8.2 of the Agreement, I am satisfied that the more beneficial entitlements of the NES will prevail where there is an inconsistency between the Agreement and the NES.

1. The Independent Education Union of Australia, being a bargaining representative for the Agreement, has given notice under s. 183 of the Act that it wants the Agreement to cover it. In accordance with s. 201(2), and based on the declaration provided by the organisation, I note that the Agreement covers the organisation.

1. The Agreement was approved on 4 February 2022 and, in accordance with s. 54, will operate from 11 February 2022. The nominal expiry date of the Agreement is 31 December 2023.

COMMISSIONER

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Annexure A