Fair Work Australia offers an alternative dispute resolution service to help settle a wide range of disputes.
These include:
- disputes under the terms of an award or a collective or enterprise agreement
- bargaining disputes
- general protections disputes
Members of Fair Work Australia are trained and have experience in a wide range of alternative dispute resolution techniques including conciliation, mediation and arbitration.
Members are impartial and have knowledge and understanding of the relevant legal and industrial issues.
Depending on the circumstances, Fair Work Australia can exercise statutory powers that enable disputes to be resolved on a final basis (arbitration).
Bargaining disputes
If parties are unable to resolve a bargaining dispute in relation to a proposed single-enterprise agreement or a multi-enterprise agreement which has a low-paid authorisation in operation, a bargaining representative from either party can apply to Fair Work Australia to deal with the dispute, with or without the agreement of the other party.
If the proposed multi-enterprise agreement does not have a low-paid authorisation in operation, the application can only be made if all the bargaining representatives for the proposed agreement have agreed to make this application.
If both parties have agreed to Fair Work Australia arbitrating the dispute, Fair Work Australia can exercise statutory powers that enable disputes to be resolved on a final basis (arbitration).
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