WJR Investments Pty Ltd T/A Ray White Ipswich; DLR Rentals Pty Ltd T/A Ray White Ipswich Property Management; Dot Com Pty Ltd T/A Ray White Commercial Ipswich

[2014] FWCA 1527

[2014] FWCA 1527

FAIR WORK COMMISSION

DECISION

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

WJR Investments Pty Ltd T/A Ray White Ipswich; DLR Rentals Pty Ltd T/A Ray White Ipswich Property Management; Dot Com Pty Ltd T/A Ray White Commercial Ipswich
(AG2014/271)

RAY WHITE IPSWICH ENTERPRISE AGREEMENT 2014

Real estate industry
COMMISSIONER BULL	SYDNEY, 4 MARCH 2014

Application for approval of the Ray White Ipswich Enterprise Agreement 2014.

[1] An application has been made for approval of an enterprise agreement known as the Ray White Ipswich Enterprise Agreement 2014 (the Agreement). The application was made pursuant to s.185 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (the Act). The Agreement is a single-enterprise agreement.

[2] The Commission notes that at clause 3 - Application of this Agreement, and in particular, sub clause 3.1, the Agreement seeks to cover the following employers’:

● WJR Investments Pty Ltd T/A Ray White Ipswich
● DLR Rentals Pty Ltd T/A Ray White Ipswich Property Management
● Dot Com Pty Ltd T/A Ray White Commercial Ipswich

[3] Multiple employers may be party to a single enterprise agreement when two or more are single interest employers (s.172(a) of the Act). Single interest employers include employers engaged in a ‘common enterprise’ (s.175(5)(a) of the Act).

[4] The Applicant was requested to provide correspondence outlining how the named employers’ are single interest employers for the purpose of s.172(2) of the Act.

[5] In its correspondence to the Commission, the Applicant states that the three employers’ are single interest employers engaged in a common enterprise pursuant to s.172(5)(a).

[6] The Applicant submits that the employers’ form part of a collaborative relationship in that they share the same building and office space and there are employees in common (that is, a receptionist whom provides clerical support to all three employers’) engaged by the employers.

[7] I have considered the test for a common enterprise as citied by the Full Bench in Kentucky Fried Chicken Pty Limited v Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association 1 at paragraph 18 of the decision, the test being that as expressed by Mason J (as he then was) in Australian Softwood Forest Pty Ltd v Attorney-General (NSW); Ex Rel Corporate Affairs Commission2, in which his Honour said:

“An enterprise may be described as common if it consists of two or more closely connected operations on the footing that one part is to be carried out by A and the other by B, each deriving a separate profit from what he does, even though there is no pooling or sharing of receipts of profits. It will be enough that the two operations constituting the enterprise contribute to the overall purpose that unites them. There is then an enterprise common to both participants and, accordingly, a common enterprise.”

[8] I am satisfied that the employers listed at sub clause 3.1 of the Agreement are single interest employers engaged in a ‘common enterprise’ for the purpose of s.172(5) of the Act.

[9] 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.

[10] The Agreement is approved. In accordance with s.54(1) the Agreement will operate from 11 March 2014. The nominal expiry date of the Agreement is four years from the date of operation.

COMMISSIONER

 1   [2010] FWAFB 8826

 2 (1981)148 CLR 121

Printed by authority of the Commonwealth Government Printer

<Price code J, AE407124  PR548341>