Bargaining in good faith helps agreement making by encouraging parties to communicate openly and to focus their negotiations on key issues.
Under the national workplace relations system, bargaining representatives involved in bargaining for a new enterprise agreement must:
- recognise and bargain with the other bargaining representatives involved
- attend and participate in meetings at reasonable times
- disclose relevant information in a timely manner (this excludes confidential or commercially sensitive information)
- respond to proposals made by the other bargaining representatives in a timely manner
- genuinely consider the proposals of the other bargaining representatives and provide reasons for the responses
- refrain from behaving in a way that undermines freedom of association or collective bargaining.
These requirements don't require a bargaining representative to:
- make concessions during bargaining for the agreement
- reach agreement on the terms to be included in the agreement.