Adding employers and their employees to a single interest employer agreement

Overview

From 6 June 2023, employers and employees will be able to make a single interest employer agreement. This is a type of multi-enterprise agreement. It allows 2 or more employers with common interests to jointly bargaining for a single agreement.

Single interest employer agreements may be varied to cover additional employers and their employees.

There are also provisions to remove employers and employees from multi-enterprise agreements.

Making a variation application to add employers and employees

An application to vary a single interest employer agreement to cover additional employers and their employees may be made:

jointly by the employers and their employees, or
a union, if a majority of the employees to be covered want to be covered.

If the employers and employees agree to the variation, the employer must apply to the Commission for approval of the variation.

Varying by agreement (joint variation)

Employers and their employees can agree to apply to vary a single interest employer agreement to be included in the coverage of the enterprise agreement. This is known as a joint variation.

To indicate agreement, the employer may hold a vote for the affected employees. A majority must genuinely agree to the variation.

The employer must then apply to the Commission for approval of the variation. The employer has 14 days after voting closes to apply. The variation has no effect unless it is approved by the Commission.

Varying without agreement

A union covered by a single interest employer agreement can apply to the Commission to vary the agreement to cover additional employers and their employees.

Approving a variation application to add employers and their employees

If an application is made, the Commission must approve a variation of a single interest employer agreement if the employers and employee organisations covered by the agreement have had an opportunity to express their views on the application to the Commission.

If the application was made by an employer — the Commission must also be satisfied that the variation has been genuinely agreed to by the affected employees.

If the application was made by union — the Commission must also be satisfied:

At least 20 employees — that the new employer has at least 20 employees
Majority want to be covered — that the majority of the affected employees want to be covered by the agreement
Not covered by another agreement —
- that the affected employees are not covered by another enterprise agreement that has not passed its nominal expiry date, and
- that the employer and union have not agreed in writing to bargain for a single-enterprise agreement covering the affected employees (or substantially the same group of affected employees)
Franchisee or common interest —
- that all of the employers to be covered by the agreement are franchisees, or
- that the employers already covered and the new employer have clearly identifiable common interests
- that it would not be contrary to the public interest to approve the variation.

Unless otherwise shown, we will presume that some of the approval requirements have been met if:

the application to vary the agreement was made by a union, and
the proposed new employer employs 50 employees or more at the time the application was made.

Read more about common interests and public interest on the New single interest agreements page.

Tip: In calculating the number of employees, all employees of the employer and of the employer’s associated entities are to be counted. This includes regular casual employees but does not include other casuals.

Refusing a variation application to add employers and employees

The Commission may refuse to approve an application if:

the new employer and their employees are bargaining in good faith for a proposed enterprise agreement that will cover the new proposed employees, or substantially the same group of employees,
the new employer and their employees have a history of effectively bargaining in relation to one or more enterprise agreement, and
less than 9 months have passed since the most recent agreement expired.

The Commission must not approve the variation if:

the agreement is a greenfields agreement that covers employees in general building and construction work, or
as a result of the variation, the agreement would cover employees in general building and construction work.

The Commission cannot approve the variation if the employer is specified in a supported bargaining authorisation in relation to any of the affected employees.