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ARTICLE · 30 OCTOBER 2015

Fair Work Act Amendments set to become law

Corrs Chambers Westgarth
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This article examines the main provisions of the Fair Work Amendment Act and the compromises made to secure its passage.

AustraliaEmployment and HR
Janine Young
Janine Young
John Tuck
John Tuck
Anthony Forsyth
Anthony Forsyth
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The Coalition Government is close to obtaining the passage of the first of several workplace reform Bills introduced into Parliament since it took office in September 2013.

Once passed, the Fair Work Amendment Act (FW Amendment Act) will implement changes to several aspects of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) (FW Act), most importantly the provisions relating to greenfields agreement-making and protected industrial action ballots.

However, several other changes sought by the Government in its original Bill – including new restrictions on union right of entry and easier processes for the making of individual flexibility arrangements (IFAs)1 – had to be jettisoned in order to obtain support for the Bill from cross-bench senators.

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