Awards & Enterprise Bargaining Agreements
Modern awards set minimum pay and conditions for most jobs. An enterprise agreement replaces the award for the employees it covers, but must leave them better off overall. We explain how to find your award, how agreements are approved, and what to do if your employer is not following either.
For employees in the national workplace relations system, the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) sets up a safety net of minimum pay and conditions in three layers:
- the National Employment Standards, which apply to every national system employee;
- modern awards, which set minimum pay rates and conditions for particular industries and occupations; and
- the national minimum wage, for employees not covered by an award or agreement.
On top of the safety net, employers and employees can make enterprise agreements, and individual employment contracts. A contract can give you more than the safety net, but not less.
What Are Modern Awards?
Who Makes Them
Modern awards are made and varied by the Fair Work Commission, which must make sure that awards and the National Employment Standards together provide a fair and relevant minimum safety net (s 134). Minimum award rates are reviewed every year in the Annual Wage Review. From 1 July 2026 they rose by 4.75%. The Fair Work Ombudsman does not make awards: it publishes information about them and enforces them.
What They Cover
Minimum pay rates for each classification, and conditions such as hours of work, rosters, breaks, overtime, penalty rates, allowances, leave loading, consultation and dispute resolution. They add to the National Employment Standards but cannot give you less.
Who They Cover
Most awards cover an industry (for example hospitality or retail), and some cover an occupation wherever it is performed (for example clerks). Whether an award covers you depends on your employer's business and the work you actually do, not on your job title.
Breaching An Award
An employer that does not pay award entitlements contravenes s 45 of the Fair Work Act and can be ordered to back-pay you and pay penalties. See I've Been Underpaid.
Is My Job Covered By An Award?
Start with the Fair Work Ombudsman's Find my award tool or its list of awards. Then use the Pay and Conditions Tool or the pay guides to find the rates for your classification, as at the dates you worked.
Our own simplified awards explain the most common awards in plain English, including how to work out your classification.
Coverage can be genuinely difficult where a business does several things, or your duties changed over time. If you are not sure, we can help.
What Is An Enterprise Agreement?
An enterprise agreement (often still called an EBA) is an agreement about pay and conditions made between an employer (or several employers) and its employees, usually through collective bargaining with unions or other bargaining representatives, and then approved by the Fair Work Commission.
While an enterprise agreement applies to you, the modern award does not (s 57). The agreement can change award pay and conditions, but it cannot give you less than the National Employment Standards, and it must pass the better off overall test.
An agreement has no effect until the Fair Work Commission approves it. Approved agreements are published by the Fair Work Commission, where you can search for yours.
The Better Off Overall Test
Before approving an agreement, the Commission must be satisfied that each award-covered employee, and each reasonably foreseeable employee, would be better off overall under the agreement than under the relevant modern award (s 193). It does this as a global assessment, weighing the terms that are more beneficial against those that are less beneficial, and it must consider the views of the employer, the employees and their bargaining representatives (s 193A). An agreement can therefore trade away some award conditions, such as certain penalty rates, only if the package as a whole leaves employees better off.
Other Approval Requirements
The Commission must also be satisfied, among other things, that the agreement was genuinely agreed to by the employees it covers, that the group of employees it covers was fairly chosen, that it contains no unlawful terms, and that it has a nominal expiry date no more than 4 years after approval (s 186).
What Kinds Of Enterprise Agreements Are There?
- A single-enterprise agreement covers one employer (or related employers, such as a joint venture or related companies) and its employees.
- A multi-enterprise agreement covers two or more employers that are not all related. Since the Secure Jobs, Better Pay reforms there are also supported bargaining and single interest employer agreements, which let groups of employers bargain together in some circumstances.
- A greenfields agreement is made for a genuine new enterprise, with one or more unions, before any employees are employed.
An enterprise agreement cannot be made with a single employee.
What Must An Enterprise Agreement Include?
To be approved, an enterprise agreement must include:
A nominal expiry date no more than 4 years after it is approved (s 186). The agreement keeps operating after that date until it is replaced or terminated.
A dispute settlement procedure that allows the Fair Work Commission or another independent person to settle disputes, and allows employees to be represented (s 186).
A flexibility term allowing an employer and an individual employee to agree an individual flexibility arrangement (s 202).
A consultation term requiring consultation about major workplace changes and changes to regular rosters or ordinary hours (s 205).
If an agreement leaves out a flexibility or consultation term, the model term set by the Fair Work Commission is taken to be included. Beyond these, an agreement usually deals with the same matters as an award, and can deal with other matters about the employment relationship.
What Terms Must An Enterprise Agreement Not Include?
An enterprise agreement must not contain any unlawful term (s 194). Unlawful terms include:
- a discriminatory term or an objectionable term;
- a term letting an employee or employer opt out of being covered by the agreement;
- a term giving an unfair dismissal remedy to employees who have not completed the minimum employment period, or excluding or reducing the unfair dismissal protections;
- a term inconsistent with the industrial action rules; and
- certain right of entry and superannuation terms.
Any term that gives less than the National Employment Standards has no effect (ss 55-56).
What Happens When My Job Is Not Covered Either By An Award Or A Registered Agreement?
If you are "award-free", the national minimum wage and the National Employment Standards are your minimum terms. From 1 July 2026 the national minimum wage is $26.44 an hour, or $1,004.90 for a 38-hour week; award-free casuals get a 25% loading on top ($33.05 an hour).
No employment contract can give you less than the national minimum wage or the National Employment Standards.
Not everyone in WA is in the national system. If you work for a sole trader, a partnership, a trust run by individuals, a WA local council or the WA public sector, you are probably in the WA state system. Your minimum terms come from WA awards and industrial agreements made by the WA Industrial Relations Commission and from the Minimum Conditions of Employment Act 1993 (WA), not from the National Employment Standards (though some Fair Work Act entitlements, such as notice, parental leave and paid family and domestic violence leave, reach you too). See minimum conditions in the WA state system.
What Are The Minimum Terms Provided In The National Employment Standards?
The National Employment Standards in Part 2-2 of the Fair Work Act set 12 minimum entitlements for every national system employee, whatever their award, agreement or contract says:
Maximum weekly hours
Requests for flexible working arrangements
Casual employment, including the employee choice pathway to permanent work
Parental leave and related entitlements
Annual leave
Personal/carer's leave, compassionate leave and paid family and domestic violence leave
Community service leave
Long service leave
Public holidays
Superannuation contributions
Notice of termination and redundancy pay
The Fair Work Information Statement and the Casual Employment Information Statement
Read more in our guide to the National Employment Standards. If your employer is not following your award, agreement or the National Employment Standards, contact us for a free confidential discussion.