Introduction
Certain kinds of registered agreements made before 1 January 2010 continued to operate when the Fair Work Act 2009 fully commenced on 1 January 2010 (pre-2010 agreements).
Content
Pre-2010 agreements could be:
- Agreement-based transitional instruments
- Division 2B State employment agreements, or
- Enterprise agreements made during the bridging period (1 July 2009 to 31 December 2009).
All pre-2010 agreements that were still in operation have automatically terminated (sunsetted) unless an application was made to the Commission before 7 December 2023 and the Commission has extended the agreements default period (or the application is pending).
Agreement-based transitional instruments
Before 1 January 2010, several types of agreements were in place under the Workplace Relations Act 1996.
These agreements were either:
- collective – covering employer(s) and a group of employees, or
- individual – covering one employer and one employee.
‘Collective agreement-based transitional instruments’ are:
- collective agreements
- workplace determinations
- preserved collective State agreements
- pre-reform certified agreements
- old IR agreements
- section 170MX awards
‘Individual agreement-based transitional instruments’ are:
- individual transitional employment agreements (ITEAs)
- preserved individual State agreements
- Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs)
- pre-reform Australian Workplace Agreements (pre-reform AWAs).
See Schedule 3 of the Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 2009.
Division 2B State employment agreements
Division 2B State employment agreements are based on agreements registered under State industrial laws in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania before 1 January 2010 that covered referred employers.
These agreements were either:
• collective, or
• individual.
See Schedule 3A of the Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 2009.
Enterprise agreements made during the bridging period
Enterprise agreements that were made under the Fair Work Act between 1 July 2009 and 31 December 2009 had to pass the ‘no disadvantage test’ rather than the ‘better off overall test’. These agreements were collective agreements.
See Schedule 7 of the Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 2009.