Introduction

Once all modern awards made under Part 10A of the Workplace Relations Act 1996 are in operation, Fair Work Australia must terminate any modernisable instruments that have been completely replaced by a modern award as soon as practicable.

An instrument is a legal document that outlines the terms and conditions of an employee's employment.

Modernisable instruments are defined as:

• award-based transitional instruments—federal awards and Notional Agreements Preserving State Awards (NAPSAs) created before 27 March 2006
• transitional Australian Pay and Classification Scales—wage schedules derived from federal awards and NAPSAs on 27 March 2006 as adjusted by minimum wage decisions of the Australian Fair Pay Commission from 2006 to 2009.

Termination of some of these instruments is required by the Fair Work (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 2009 (Item 3 of Schedule 5).

The President of Fair Work Australia, Justice Giudice, on 23 April 2010 issued a statement explaining the process involved in terminating the relevant instruments.

Award-based transitional instruments

A downloadable list of modern awards and the relevant award-based transitional instruments is available to assist those involved in the process.

• Download: List of award-based transitional instruments   (0.4Mb)(updated 27 August 2010)