PC Mobile Welding Aust Pty Ltd

[2021] FWCA 3300

[2021] FWCA 3300

FAIR WORK COMMISSION

DECISION

Fair Work Act 2009
s.185—Enterprise agreement

PC Mobile Welding Aust Pty Ltd
(AG2021/5462)

AMWU & PC MOBILE WELDING PTY LTD METAL ENGINEERING ON-SITE CONSTRUCTION AGREEMENT 2020 - 2023

Building, metal and civil construction industries
COMMISSIONER O'NEILL	MELBOURNE, 16 JUNE 2021

Application for approval of the AMWU & PC Mobile Welding Pty Ltd Metal Engineering On-Site Construction Agreement 2020 - 2023.

[1] PC Mobile Welding Aust Pty Ltd has applied for approval of an enterprise agreement known as the AMWU & PC Mobile Welding Pty Ltd Metal Engineering On-Site Construction Agreement 2020 - 2023 (the Agreement). The application was made pursuant to s.185 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act) and is a single enterprise agreement.

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

[3] The Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union known as the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU), 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) I note that the Agreement covers the organisation.

[4] The Notice of Employee Representational Rights (the NERR) distributed to employees was the entire form set out in Schedule 2.1 of the Fair Work Regulations 2009. It included information that could have been deleted as not applicable, for example:

[If a low-paid authorisation applies to the agreement--include:]

Fair Work Commission has granted a low-paid bargaining authorisation in relation to this agreement.  This means the union that applied for the authorisation will be your bargaining representative for the agreement unless you appoint another person as your representative, or you revoke the union's status as your representative, or you are a member of another union that also applied for the authorisation.

[5] However, I consider that the content and form of the NERR complies with s.174 of the Act. The additional information does form part of the prescribed NERR, even though it did not apply in this case.

[6] Alternatively, to the extent necessary, I exercise the discretion conferred by s.188(2) of the Act. I am satisfied that the Agreement would have been genuinely agreed to but for the minor procedural departure from the requirements of the NERR under s.174 of the Act 1 and that the employees covered by the Agreement were not likely to have been disadvantaged by the inclusion of the extraneous information.2

[7] The Agreement is approved and, in accordance with s.54 of the Act, will operate from 23 June 2021. The nominal expiry date of the Agreement is 30 June 2023.

COMMISSIONER

 1   s. 188(2)(a) of the Act.

 2   s. 188(2)(b) of the Act.

Printed by authority of the Commonwealth Government Printer

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