New South Wales Consolidated Acts

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS ACT 1996 - SECT 36

36 Special requirements relating to enterprise agreements to which employees are parties

(1) An enterprise agreement under which employees are a party is not to be approved unless the requirements of this section have been complied with.

(2) Before or at the time the employer first undertakes formal negotiations with the employees for the purposes of an agreement, the employer is to advise the Industrial Registrar in writing of the following--

(a) that an enterprise agreement is proposed or under negotiation,

(b) the State or Federal awards or enterprise agreements that then apply to the employees.

(3) The Industrial Registrar is to advise such persons or bodies as are prescribed by the regulations of the proposed enterprise agreement.

(4) The enterprise agreement must be approved in a secret ballot by not less than 65% of the employees who are to be covered by the agreement at the time the ballot is conducted.

(5) The Industrial Registrar must, after the enterprise agreement is lodged for approval, prepare a report for the Commission comparing the conditions of employment under the agreement and the conditions of employment that would otherwise apply to the employees under relevant State or Federal awards. If there are no relevant State or Federal awards, the report is to outline any relevant employment conditions of the employees.

(5A) The Commission must, by its order, make an industrial organisation a party to the enterprise agreement if it is satisfied that--

(a) the industrial organisation represents any of the employees covered by the enterprise agreement, and

(b) the industrial organisation has notified the Commission of its intention to become a party to the agreement by lodging a notice to that effect with the Industrial Registrar at any time before the Commission approves of the agreement under this Part, and

(c) an employee covered by the agreement is a member of the industrial organisation and has requested the industrial organisation to become a party to the agreement.

The Commission may direct that the name of an employee who made that request is not to be disclosed to the employer or other person.