Aurizon decision gives employers a chance to restart the clock on lop-sided enterprise agreements, employment lawyers argue
The Fair Work Commission’s landmark decision to terminate employment agreements with rail freight operator Aurizon will have positive flow-on effects for other employers, lawyers from Corrs Chambers Westgarth suggest.
Jack de Flamingh and Stephen Jenkins-Flint, both from the firm’s employment law practice, say the full bench ruling could shift the starting positions in enterprise bargaining to the employer’s favour.
“Until this decision, employers have frequently lamented the capacity of negotiations to be dragged out well beyond the nominal expiry fate of an existing agreement,” they say in a published case study.
“The Aurizon decision enhances the capacity of employers to seek to terminate enterprise agreements in those circumstances.
“This capacity, now with real prospects of success, will provide a clear impetus for unions and employees to reach agreement sooner.”
They are quick to qualify that the decision does not offer employers “carte blanche” power to terminate any expired agreement.
The Aurizon agreements were unique in that they were affected by the Queensland Government’s decision to privatise the then QR National in 2010.
But where the legacy of public sector terms and conditions are affecting business, the decision gives employers some hope of negotiating a new enterprise agreement from a fresh slate.
“It remains incumbent on employers to show why terminating an agreement is not against the ‘public interest’ and is ‘appropriate’ having regard to the likely effects of employees, employers and unions covered,” Flamingh and Jenkins-Flint say.