An enterprise agreement is a legal instrument you negotiate, get approved by the Fair Work Commission, and then have to operate — in payroll, rosters and disputes — for years. This module covers the lifecycle end-to-end: when to bargain, what good faith requires, how the BOOT works, and the governance that keeps an approved agreement compliant.
Enterprise agreements set minimum conditions for a workplace (single enterprise) or a group of workplaces (multi-enterprise), are made through formal bargaining, and must be approved by the FWC. Once an EA applies it generally displaces the modern award — but the NES always applies, and the EA base rate cannot fall below the award base rate (or NMW order rate if award-free). An EA does not end at nominal expiry; it continues until terminated or replaced. Approval turns on the Better Off Overall Test and genuine agreement, and Secure Jobs, Better Pay reshaped the whole framework — multi-employer streams, termination after expiry, zombie sunsetting and intractable bargaining. The lasting risk is operational: translating clauses into payroll rules and keeping them compliant as awards move.
An EA sets minimum employment conditions for one business or a group of businesses, negotiated through bargaining and approved by the FWC. Three types: single-enterprise (one employer or related employers), multi-enterprise (more than one employer), and greenfields (a new enterprise without employees). Employment contracts can operate alongside an EA but cannot undercut legal minimums.
The stack is non-negotiable: the NES is always the baseline floor. Awards usually stop applying when an EA applies, but base pay stays anchored — under s206, if the EA base rate falls below the award base rate, the agreement has effect as if the rate equalled the award rate. And Annual Wage Review increases do not automatically flow into EA rates unless the agreement says so, which is exactly how pay tables drift into non-compliance.
Start planning when nominal expiry is 9–18 months out (earlier for complex workforces), or when wage pressure, operational change, compliance signals or industrial strategy demand it. Bargaining is done by employers, employees and their representatives — typically unions, and increasingly workplace delegates, whose rights were strengthened from 15 December 2023, with required delegates’ rights terms in awards, new EAs and workplace determinations from 1 July 2024 (extended to regulated workers from 26 August 2024).
Good faith bargaining (Fair Work Act s228) is procedural: attend meetings at reasonable times, disclose relevant information in a timely way, respond to and genuinely consider proposals with reasons, avoid capricious or unfair conduct, and recognise other bargaining representatives. It does not require you to make concessions or reach agreement — but you must be able to evidence the conduct.
Secure Jobs, Better Pay also reduced barriers to multi-enterprise bargaining, with cooperative and authorised streams (single interest and supported bargaining). Some streams can compel you to bargain alongside other employers if criteria are met — so settle decision rights, costing control and red lines early.
To be approved, the agreement must be genuinely agreed: employees informed with access to the proposed agreement and incorporated materials, the effect of the agreement explained, and a valid vote. Plan explanation for your actual workforce — language, literacy, rosters — and retain evidence of what was provided, when, in what form, and how employees could ask questions.
The Better Off Overall Test is the gate: employees must be better off overall than under the relevant award. Post-reform, the BOOT is a global assessment focused on reasonably foreseeable patterns of work, and the FWC can amend agreements during approval in some circumstances. Model the hotspots before you lodge: weekend and public holiday penalties, overtime triggers and TOIL, allowances (absorbed or separate), part-time minimum shifts and additional-hours rules, casual and shiftwork patterns. Where risk remains, draft provisions or undertakings that preserve employee outcomes — fixing BOOT issues pre-lodgement beats scrambling during approval.
After employees vote the agreement up, lodge with the FWC: Form F16 (approval of an EA other than greenfields) via the Online Lodgement Service, with supporting declarations such as Form F17. File the signed agreement and schedules, evidence of bargaining steps and the vote, and the award(s) and modelling behind your BOOT position. Many FWC applications have deadlines — lodge early.
Indicative duration — 8–12 weeks
Focus — Scope workforce and underpinning awards; set objectives and authorisation limits; start BOOT scenario modelling; build the bargaining team.
Indicative duration — 8–20+ weeks
Focus — Run meetings and the proposal register; re-cost after each major movement; plan for conciliation and protected action ballots.
Indicative duration — 2–6 weeks
Focus — Publish the agreement and plain-English summary; explain effect by cohort; run the vote; lodge F16 and declarations.
Indicative duration — First 90 days
Focus — Configure and test payroll rules; train managers; run post-implementation wage assurance sampling and fix defects.
Protected industrial action is only available when negotiating a proposed EA (with exceptions for certain agreement types such as greenfields) — and protected status changes your legal exposure and response options. Treat it as a timeline problem: conciliation, ballots and notice periods, plus payroll readiness for stoppage calculations and clear governance over who authorises responses and who speaks publicly.
If bargaining truly deadlocks, the FWC can make an intractable bargaining declaration — where there isn’t a reasonable prospect of agreement being reached if the Commission doesn’t act — and then a workplace determination: a compulsory outcome. Amendments commencing 27 February 2024 mean terms the FWC includes (other than wage increases and agreed terms) must be not less favourable than corresponding terms in an existing agreement. Your bargaining record becomes input to that determination, so keep positions and evidence disciplined throughout.
Day to day, the dispute resolution clause is the pressure valve: make it usable — short steps, clear timeframes, identified escalation points — train managers in early informal resolution, and keep dispute logs; they become evidence in bargaining and compliance contexts.
Three pathways: vary (discrete change where the architecture still works — apply to the FWC within 14 days of the variation being made, unless extended, with the signed variation and the agreement as proposed to be varied); replace (structural change — new classifications, pay architecture or rostering model); or terminate (exceptional). The process for terminating after nominal expiry changed from 7 December 2022: employers, employees or a covered employee organisation can apply, and statutory tests apply — unfairness to employees, no employees covered, or business viability threat with additional requirements including guarantees in some cases. Termination can also occur by agreement with FWC approval.
7 December 2022 — termination-after-nominal-expiry process changed. 6 June 2023 — multi-enterprise bargaining changes commenced. 7 December 2023 — pre-Fair Work Act “zombie” agreements automatically sunsetted unless an extension was applied for. 1 July 2024 — delegates’ rights terms required in new EAs. This module runs a federal (national system) lens; the bulk of SA private-sector and covered public-sector workplaces bargain under these federal rules.
Currency & care. General information for practitioners, not legal advice. Current as at 27 February 2026 (Adelaide, South Australia); validate thresholds, dates and instruments against the primary sources above before relying on them. Federal (national system) lens with South Australian overlays noted where relevant.
The Fundamentals is one series inside The People Practice. If you’d like help turning these controls into your operating rhythm, let’s talk.
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