Contracts of Employment/AWAs

[shinny]

Could someone explain the difference between contract of employments and Australian Workplace Agreements? They seem pretty similar to me..

[jsimmo]

An Australian Workplace Agreement was a type of employment contract. Since their abolishment there are now only two main employment contracts: Awards and Collective Agreements.

[RD]

jsimmo (or anyone else), could you explain to me what EBA's are?

[jsimmo]

An EBA is an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement.

Enterprise bargaining is a decentralised employee relations trend where bargaining related to pay and other conditions can take place at the individuals workplace rather than throughout the industry as a whole - the enterprise bargaining process results in ENTERPRISE AGREEMENTS. There are two different types of EBA's -

Collective Agrements: they cover a number of employees at the one workplace and are negotiated by these workers and their employer. Sometimes they are called 'certified agreements' because the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) needs to consider and certify their appropriateness.

The other type of EBA were AWA's which were an individual contract between an employee and their employer.

Hopefully that answers your question.
 

[shinny]

Sorry for any confusion but I was referring to 'informal contracts of employment' as they're to in the Barrille textbook. But theres hardly any details provided as to what they actually are. Do we actually need to know about these?

[jsimmo]

Okay. It isn't listed in the study design, so it won't be in the exam.

EDIT:
Maybe you mean:
- employment contracts such as full time, part time, casual employment?

- employment packages (entitlements, bonuses, incentives, fringe benefits)??

If it's not those then I don't know what you mean, sorry.

[shinny]

Nah none of those. Thanks for trying to help anyway.

[costargh]

Informal contracts of employment are just verbal/handshake agreements on pay/working conditions. Eg. You work for a small lawn mowing business and the owner employees just you. He might say hey mate you can get paid 10 bucks an hour and you work 6 hours a day monday-friday. Deal?

That sorta thing.

[jsimmo]

Informal contracts of employment are just verbal/handshake agreements on pay/working conditions. Eg. You work for a small lawn mowing business and the owner employees just you. He might say hey mate you can get paid 10 bucks an hour and you work 6 hours a day monday-friday. Deal?

That sorta thing.

Would they really exist in a large organisation? I could only see them working in a small business?

shinjitsuzx: What made you bring the question up? Was it something your teacher was talking about or just a general question?

[Daniel08]

Nah none of those. Thanks for trying to help anyway.

Common law agreements?

[shinny]

They were in my class notes so I thought I'd better get a fuller understanding of them incase they ever came up. According to my notes, my teacher said they're often used for managerial and professional jobs, so they defintely exist in large organisations. I asked him again later and although he still couldn't provide a straight definition for me, he mentioned that they exist only for certain periods of time and then expire, unlike typical contracts of employment which are indefinite until termination (i think).

[jsimmo]

http://www.workplaceinfo.com.au/nocookie/templates/contracts.asp

An individual written contract is a document drafted with a particular employer-employee relationship in mind. This means the employer and employee have agreed to terms and conditions that may differ from what would otherwise be provided in an award, a collective agreement, an unregistered collective agreement or custom and practice at the workplace. The individual written contract also fulfils the purpose of consolidating the terms and conditions of that particular relationship into one document.

"The type of employee likely to be covered by an individual written contract is an executive, management level employee or an employee doing specialised work which is not covered by an award."

Even if covered by an award or agreement an employer and employee may also negotiate their own employment arrangements to cover issues not provided in the award or to set terms and conditions in excess of those provided for in the applicable award or agreement.

You can negotiate your own contract of employment, as long as the employment contract does not provide lesser entitlements to an employee than those contained in the Industrial Relations Act 1999 or in an applicable award or agreement.

[shinny]

Ahhh thanks. Beats me why I didn't just use google o_O And yeh, just to clarify, one thing they mention in the Barille book is that if there is an award, an individual contract of employment must still meet these despite not truly being under the award system, otherwise it's illegal.

[costargh]

Ah too true. I was trying to use an illustration without considering the implication in an LSO, not a small business. Good explanation though jsimmo.

[RD]

An EBA is an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement.

Enterprise bargaining is a decentralised employee relations trend where bargaining related to pay and other conditions can take place at the individuals workplace rather than throughout the industry as a whole - the enterprise bargaining process results in ENTERPRISE AGREEMENTS. There are two different types of EBA's -

Collective Agrements: they cover a number of employees at the one workplace and are negotiated by these workers and their employer. Sometimes they are called 'certified agreements' because the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) needs to consider and certify their appropriateness.

The other type of EBA were AWA's which were an individual contract between an employee and their employer.

Hopefully that answers your question.
 

yes indeed, thanks a lot