Fair Work Amendment (Pay Protection) Bill 2017 [2017] AUSStaCSBSD 129 (10 May 2017)

• Fair Work Amendment (Pay Protection) Bill 2017
• Retrospective application 44

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Fair Work Amendment (Pay Protection) Bill 2017

Purpose	This bill seeks to amends the Fair Work Act 2009 to extend protections for employees covered by an enterprise agreement to require employers to pay a base rate of pay, full rate of pay and any casual loading that is no less than the relevant award or national minimum wage order
Sponsor	Senator Lee Rhiannon
Introduced	Senate on 29 March 2017

Retrospective application ^[44]

1.65 The bill seeks to amend the Fair Work Act 2009 relating to enterprise agreements. Proposed subsection 30(1) provides that the amendments apply to enterprise agreements 'whether made before, on or after the commencement' of the relevant amendments. This appears to provide for the retrospective application of the amendments to enterprise agreements made before commencement. However, subsection 30(2) provides that:

However, the amendment made by that Schedule also have the effect they would have if they were, by express provision, confined to enterprise agreements made on or after the commencement of that Schedule.

1.66 It is unclear how these two provisions interact, and whether the measure is, in fact, retrospective.

1.67 The committee therefore requests the Senator's advice as to whether it is intended that the amendments apply to enterprise agreements made before commencement of the relevant provisions of the bill, and if so, why this is necessary and whether this would have any detrimental impact on any person.

Pending the Senator's reply, the committee draws Senators' attention to the provision, as it may be considered to trespass unduly on personal rights and liberties, in breach of principle 1(a)(i) of the committee's terms of reference.

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[44] Schedule 1, item 10.