We are now four years in to the operation of the Fair Work Act, which means that any enterprise agreements that were entered into at the start of the new regime will be coming up to their nominal expiry date.
In addition, we are also coming across employers who are still acting under agreements from the previous industrial relations laws, including collective agreements, Australian workplace agreements (AWA's) and individual transitional employment agreements (ITEA's). These agreements will also have expired.
If you have an expired agreement operating in your workplace, or have one that is coming up to it's expiry date, what you do next will depend on the type of agreement you have in place, and also on the terms of the agreement. It may be that some workplaces will be able to continue to operate under an expired agreement, as it continues to comply with the requirements of the Fair Work Act. Some workplaces, however, will need to update their agreements to ensure they are meeting their obligations, particularly if the agreement was entered into before the Fair Work Act was brought in.
If you have an expired agreement in place for your workplace, we strongly recommend that you seek advice in relation to whether you can continue to use the agreement, or whether you need to enter into a new agreement with your employees.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
