Waco Kwikform Limited

[2014] FWCA 4789

[2014] FWCA 4789

FAIR WORK COMMISSION

DECISION

Fair Work Act 2009
s.185 - Application for approval of a greenfields agreement

Waco Kwikform Limited
(AG2014/1542)

WACO KWIKFORM CURTIS ISLAND GREENFIELDS AGREEMENT 2014

Manufacturing and associated industries
SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT WATSON	MELBOURNE, 18 JULY 2014

Application for approval of the Waco Kwikform Curtis Island Greenfields Agreement 2014.

[1] An application has been made for approval of an enterprise agreement known as the Waco Kwikform Curtis Island Greenfields Agreement 2014 (the Agreement). The application was made pursuant to s.185 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act). It has been made by Waco Kwikform Limited. The agreement is a greenfields agreement.

[2] I have considered the matters contained in the employer declaration and the declarations made on behalf of The Australian Workers’ Union, the Communications, Electrical, Electronic, Energy, Information, Postal, Plumbing and Allied Services Union of Australia and the “Automotive, Food, Metals, Engineering, Printing and Kindred Industries Union” known as the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) employee organisations which will be covered by the Agreement.

[3] I am satisfied that each of the requirements of ss.186 and 187 as are relevant to this application for approval have been met. In accordance with s.187(5)(a) of the Act, I am satisfied that the employee organisations, taken as a group, are entitled to represent the industrial interests of a majority of employees who will be covered by the Agreement in relation to work that is to be performed under it. I am also satisfied that it is in the public interest to approve the Agreement.

[4] In my view, the Employee Consultation and Consultation provision in clauses 17 and 21 of the Agreement is not a consultation term which meets the requirements of ss.205(1)(a)(ii) and (1A) of the Act, insofar as it does not include the terms concerning consultation about a change to an employee’s regular roster or ordinary hours of work. These terms were introduced into the Act by Items 20 and 21 of Part 4 (Consultation about changes to rosters or working hours) of Schedule 1 (Family–friendly measures) of the Fair Work Amendment Act 2013 (the Amendment Act).Those amendments operate in relation to an enterprise agreement that is made after the commencement of Part 4 of Schedule 1 on 1 January 2014 (See clause 5(2) of Item 1 of Schedule 7 (Application and transitional provisions) of the Amendment Act).

[5] Section 205(2) of the Act provides that if an “enterprise agreement does not include a consultation term, the model consultation term is taken to be a term of the agreement”. The model consultation term is found in Schedule 2.3 of the Fair Work Regulations 2009.

[6] As required by s.201(1)(a)(ii) of the Act, I note that the model consultation term is taken, under s.205(2), to be a term of the Agreement.

[7] The Agreement is approved and, in accordance with s.54 of the Act, will operate from 25 July 2014. The nominal expiry date of the Agreement is 30 June 2015.

SENIOR DEPUTY PRESIDENT

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