Previous award modernisation proceedings under the Workplace Relations Act 1996
Fair Work Australia's precedessor, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC), began the award modernisation process in March 2008 following a formal request from the Australian Government.
The first phase of the award modernisation process was undertaken by a Full Bench of the AIRC in four stages:
- Priority industries and occupations (July–December 2008)
- Stage 2 (October 2008–April 2009)
- Stage 3 (March–September 2009)
- Stage 4 (July–December 2009).
In accordance with the Australian Government request under Part 10A of the Workplace Relations Act 1996, the AIRC was required to review two groups of federal awards that were created before 27 March 2006—pre-reform awards and notional agreements preserving state awards (NAPSAs). These awards involved industries and occupations where the employers were constitutional corporations. Modern awards created as part of this process came into effect on 1 January 2010.
The AIRC website's Full Bench proceedings section contains statements and decisions of the Full Bench, the overall timetable for award modernisation and dedicated websites for each of the above stages—accessible from the left-hand menu. When you click on the tab for a particular stage a new menu will open up providing access to documents and information related to that stage.
The next phase of the process involves a review of enterprise awards by Fair Work Australia. Documents relating to this phase can be accessed from Enterprise award applications page on this website.
Award modernisation information is also available to subscribers by email. For more information or to subscribe, go to the Subscriptions page.
